Skilled trades
Field service & equipment repair technicians: standby pay
The short answer
Field service techs held ready for urgent customer breakdowns are owed pay for standby whenever the restrictions prevent effective personal use of the time under 29 C.F.R. § 785.17, judged by the factors in Owens v. Local No. 169, 971 F.2d 347 (9th Cir. 1992). Loose pager duty with free movement is generally unpaid: Bright v. Houston Northwest Medical Center, 934 F.2d 671 (5th Cir. 1991).
Where the line falls
A tech who must stay within a set radius, answer in minutes, and cannot trade the shift is closer to compensable standby; a tech who merely carries a phone and can be anywhere generally is not. The comparison courts run is exactly that: 29 C.F.R. § 785.17; Owens v. Local No. 169, 971 F.2d 347 (9th Cir. 1992).
Remote diagnostics and short calls
Answering a diagnostic call or logging into a customer's system is work time however brief, and de minimis treatment is narrow under 29 C.F.R. § 785.47. California rejects the de minimis defense for regularly occurring small increments: Troester v. Starbucks Corp., 5 Cal. 5th 829 (2018).
Damages and deadlines
Unpaid overtime is generally doubled under 29 U.S.C. § 216(b), with a two- or three-year lookback under 29 U.S.C. § 255(a). Retaliation for raising the issue is prohibited under 29 U.S.C. § 215(a)(3).
Facts that usually decide these cases
- Radius and response-time limits during standby
- Unpaid remote diagnostic calls
- Inability to trade or refuse the rotation
- Straight-time pay for callback hours
Weighed together under the framework of Owens v. Local No. 169, 971 F.2d 347 (9th Cir. 1992): Geographic restriction — how far you may travel while on call; Response time — how many minutes you have to answer or arrive; Call frequency — how often the phone actually rings; Personal interference — what the rotation stops you from doing; Trade or refusal rights — whether you can hand the shift off.
Frequently asked questions
- Do five-minute phone fixes count?
- Yes. Short work periods are compensable and the de minimis doctrine is narrow under 29 C.F.R. § 785.47; California rejects it for regularly recurring minutes under Troester v. Starbucks Corp., 5 Cal. 5th 829 (2018).
- Is callback time paid at overtime rates?
- Callback hours count toward the weekly total, so hours past 40 are owed at time and a half under 29 U.S.C. § 207(a). California also owes daily overtime after eight hours under Cal. Lab. Code § 510.
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