On-call and standby: when your time counts as work in New Zealand

On call, standby and sleepovers: the difference

The law does not define on call or standby, so what counts is what your agreement requires and what the time is really like. Usually:

• On call: you are away from work, often at home, and must answer the phone and come in, or log in, if you are needed.
• Standby: you wait at or near the workplace, ready to start at once.
• A sleepover: you stay overnight at the workplace, allowed to sleep but there to deal with whatever happens in the night.

Time spent on a call-out is work, and must be paid at least the minimum wage. Employment New Zealand says payment for call-outs should be agreed in your employment agreement. The harder question is the waiting: is it work, and if not, are you paid properly for having to be available?

When waiting time is work time

There is no strict definition of work. Employment New Zealand says it may include any activity where there are constraints on your freedom, responsibilities placed on you, or benefits to your employer.

In Idea Services Ltd v Dickson [2011] NZCA 14, a case about a community service worker's sleepovers in homes run by an IHC subsidiary, the Court of Appeal upheld the Employment Court's use of those three factors and its finding that the sleepovers were work. The Employment Court had said the greater the constraints and the heavier the responsibilities, the more likely the time is work. The case was settled just before a Supreme Court hearing, and the Sleepover Wages (Settlement) Act 2011 then phased in the minimum wage for sleepovers at the employers it covered.

In Law v Board of Trustees of Woodford House [2014] NZEmpC 25, the Employment Court applied the same factors to housemistresses sleeping over in two schools' boarding hostels, and found they were working, including those paid a salary. The court said a phrase from the workers' lawyer captured the essence: they were "engaged to be available rather than available to be engaged".

If the time is work, the Minimum Wage Act 1983 applies to every hour of it: at least $23.95 an hour for adults from 1 April 2026, or $19.16 on the starting-out or training rate. The closer your waiting is to a sleepover, at the workplace and expected to respond at once, the stronger the case that it is work. Our article on unpaid overtime and your real hourly rate shows how to check a salary against your real hours.

Availability provisions and reasonable compensation

Being on call from home is usually covered by sections 67D to 67F of the Employment Relations Act 2000, unchanged since 1 April 2016. An availability provision is a clause that requires you to be available to accept work your employer offers. It is only allowed if:

• your agreement sets agreed hours of work, including guaranteed hours, and the availability is on top of those hours;
• your employer has genuine reasons, based on reasonable grounds, for the clause and the number of hours in it; and
• it pays you reasonable compensation for being available.

A clause without genuine reasons or reasonable compensation cannot be enforced against you. Reasonable compensation depends on how many hours you must be available, how that compares with your agreed hours, the restrictions it puts on you, such as staying sober or within reach of the site, your rate of pay for the work, and your salary if you have one.

If you are salaried, you and your employer can agree that your salary includes compensation for being available. In Chief of the New Zealand Defence Force v Williams [2025] NZEmpC 16, three regional technical managers on an after-hours on-call roster had agreements saying their salary was full compensation. The Employment Court said there must be express recognition that the salary takes availability into account; there was none, so the agreements did not provide reasonable compensation. If your agreement says nothing about it, your salary may not cover being on call.

Saying no to extra hours

If your agreement has no availability provision that pays reasonable compensation, you are entitled to refuse work beyond your guaranteed hours. Your employer must not treat you worse for saying no, such as by offering you worse terms or fewer chances than others in the same position, dismissing you, or harming your job in any other way.

Employment New Zealand gives the example of Jenna, who turned down a shift because she could not arrange childcare, and was then given fewer shifts and the unpopular ones. Her shift history from before she said no is how she can show the change.

Being treated worse for refusing, or being disadvantaged by an availability clause that breaks the rules, are both grounds for a personal grievance, which usually has to be raised within 90 days. Employment New Zealand (0800 20 90 20) or your union can advise. Rostered shift workers also have rules on cancelled shifts, covered in our article on whether shift work is worth it.

Recording on-call time and call-outs

Your employer must keep a wages and time record, which you can ask to see; your own record, made on the day, is what you compare it with. Write down:

• when the on-call period started and ended, and where you had to stay;
• each call-out: when the call came, when you started and finished, and what you did, including calls and remote log-ins;
• on a sleepover, each time you were woken and for how long;
• any rules, such as staying sober or keeping your phone on.

Keep the roster and any messages calling you in. Your Timesheets in jobtracker.co.nz is free for logging hours, and each call-out can be its own entry on the day, with its start and finish times and a note, counted on the day it started if it runs past midnight. When the phone rings, you can start the timer instead, and it keeps counting if your phone locks. Every change is kept in the entry's history, and once you have sent a week's hours on, you can mark that week as sent, so any later change shows. Nobody at your work can see it unless you send it.

Keep the hours and the pay together