Claim for Overtime Compensation

A radiology technician at a Veterans Administration medical facility appealed the denial of his claim for overtime compensation for being on standby duty during a 4-year period. Generally, the employee was scheduled to be on call one out of every four nithts and to remain at home during this time or notify the hospital operator of his whereabouts so he could be contacted, if needed. Legislation authorizes the head of an agency to pay premium pay on an annual basis to an employee in a position requiring him regularly to remain at, or within the confines of his duty station during longer than ordinary periods of duty while remaining in a standby status rather than performing work. Regulations restrict this type of payment to periods when the employee is required to hold himself in a state of readiness to answer calls for his services. In his appeal, the employee alleged that his supervisor had restricted him to his home while he was on standby status. Since the record indicated otherwise, a disputed issue of fact existed, and GAO was bound to accept th agency's statement of facts. Thus, the general rule applied that when an employee is not restricted to his residence and his residence is not designated as his duty station he is not entitled to compensation by virtue of being on call. The restrictions placed on the employee while he was on call did not qualify for overtime compensation under legislation which provides that a claimant must establish that the on-call time at home constitutes hours of work. It has been held that an employee is not entitled to overtime compensation while on standby status in his home when the time so spent is not predominately for his employer's benefit. It did not appear that the employee qualified for overtime compensation under current regulations. Accordingly, the denial of the employee's claim was affirmed.