Travail for information on the Conditions of Work and Employment Programme, please contact

Prerequisites
. For a domestic worker to be assigned to on-call duty, certain 
conditions must be complied with. A written agreement must be concluded 
between the individual worker and employer before on-call work is introduced. 
Subsequently, the domestic worker is entitled to seven days‘ notice of the 
requirement to be on-call. 

Call-out criteria
. Since on-call work restricts the worker‘s autonomy, the 
circumstances in which he or she can be called on to work are limited. Call-outs 
are permitted only where there is an urgent and essential need for the domestic 
worker‘s services, such as where there is an imminent risk of injury to a person for 
whom he or she is caring. Further, during the on-call period domestic workers 
must not be requested to undertake duties other than those for which they were 
called out; and when the urgent need has been addressed, the call-out period must 
come to an end. 

Call-out duty
. Periods during which the worker is called-out to work are counted 
as working time and treated in the same way as ordinary working hours. These 
periods are therefore subject to the ―framing standards‖ on hours limits, rest 
periods, etc., and must be remunerated as working time. 

“Internal” on-call work
.
 
On-call time in which the worker is at the workplace are 
defined as internal on-call periods and counted as working time. This approach to 
internal on-call duty is therefore in line with the definition of working time 
reflected in the international standards and the jurisprudence of the European 
Court of Justice. The Model Law also requires that internal on-call workers have 
access to a secure, private room, in the recognition that if no such room is provided 
their entitlement to adequate rest is undermined. International on-call workers are 
also entitled to additional remuneration if this room is shared with a person for 
whom they are caring. 
