Bartholomew County is mulling whether its “on call” hourly employees should be paid if they are not called in for work.
County council members spent some time at a work session Monday talking about whether the hourly employees should receive a flat-fee for being “on call.”
In an upcoming request, county highway engineer Danny Hollander plans to ask that three of the 22 highway employees be selected on a rotating basis and paid $60 a week upfront for being on-call for the highway department.
If those employees are called in to work, they would be paid time-and-a-half, which is overtime, Hollander said.
The highway engineer’s proposal was met with skepticism by a Columbus firefighter and a former county sheriff who serve on the council.
“I’m on call for any fires every night,” said firefighter and council member Scott Bonnell. “But I don’t get paid for being on-call.”
For more on this story, see Saturday’s Republic.
