On-call and standby time

Time an employee must be available to work if called. Whether it is paid depends on where they wait, how restricted they are and your province's rules.

Also called: on call, standby pay, on-call pay, standby time

What on-call and standby time means

On-call or standby time is time when an employee is not actively working but must be ready to work if you call them. A plumber on call for emergency jobs, a home care worker waiting for a shift to be confirmed, or a technician who must answer the phone overnight are common examples.

The big question is whether that waiting time counts as hours of work. Generally, time an employee must spend at the workplace waiting for work is treated as work and must be paid. Time spent at home or wherever they like, free to do their own things, is usually not work unless they are called in. In between those two is a grey zone, where the answer depends on how restricted the employee is and on your province's rules.

On-call arrangements also touch other rules: minimum pay when an employee is called in, overtime when hours add up, and rest periods between shifts.

How it works

Look at how much freedom the employee has while on call. Ask: Must they stay at the workplace or a place you choose? How quickly must they respond? Can they go out, see family, sleep? Are they called often? The more restricted the employee is, the more likely the time counts as work.

Know what happens when they are called. Once called in, the time spent working is hours of work. Many provinces also have minimum call-in or reporting pay, so an employee called in for a short job may be owed a minimum number of hours. Travel to an emergency call can also count, depending on the rules.

Write it down. Put the on-call rules in a written policy or in the employment contract: how the rotation works, response times, any flat on-call allowance you pay, how call-ins are paid and recorded, and how you will protect rest time. Many employers pay a flat standby rate even when the law does not require it, because it makes on-call duty fairer and easier to staff.

Common mistakes: not paying for time a worker had to spend waiting at the shop, ignoring overtime when call-ins push weekly hours past the threshold, and on-call rotations so frequent that employees never get real time off.

On-call and standby time by province

Provinces treat on-call time differently, especially when the employee waits away from the workplace. Call-in pay rules also differ.

Where the work is done	The rule
Federal	Being on call or on standby outside regular hours does not by itself trigger reporting pay. When the employee actually reports to the workplace, reporting pay of at least 3 hours applies.
British Columbia	An employee on call at a location you designate, other than their home, is deemed to be at work and must be paid. An employee who responds to a page or call has in effect reported to work and is owed minimum daily pay under section 34 of the Employment Standards Act.
Alberta	On-call time at home is not work. If an on-call employee is required to work, they are owed at least 3 hours' pay for each period worked.

We have not yet confirmed the on-call and call-in pay rules in Ontario and the other provinces and territories. Check with your provincial employment standards office.

Example: An after-hours rotation at an HVAC company

Ravi owns a heating and cooling company in Ottawa with 8 technicians. In winter he runs a weekly on-call rotation for no-heat emergencies. The on-call technician stays at home with the company van and must answer within 15 minutes.

Ravi checks Ontario's rules for on-call time and call-in pay, then writes an on-call policy. He pays a flat weekly standby allowance, pays every call-in from the moment the technician leaves home, applies the province's minimum call-in pay where it applies, and counts the hours toward overtime. He also limits each technician to one on-call week a month.

Employment standards by province

Staffkin's free employment standards by province page shows each province's overtime threshold, so you can see when call-in hours tip into overtime.

See the rules by province

Free tools and guides for this

Questions about on-call and standby time

Do I have to pay employees for being on call?

If they must wait at the workplace, generally yes. If they are at home and mostly free, the waiting time is often unpaid, but rules differ by province.

What is the minimum pay when an on-call employee is called in?

Many provinces have a minimum call-in or reporting pay rule. Check your province, as the minimum hours and conditions differ.

Does on-call work count toward overtime?

The hours actually worked after a call-in count toward hours of work, so they can push an employee past the overtime threshold.

Official sources

General information for Canadian employers, not legal advice. Rules differ by province and territory and change over time, so check with your provincial employment standards office (or the federal Labour Program if you are federally regulated) before you rely on it. See employment standards by province.

Checked against official sources on 5 November 2026.