A: Under Labor Laws, you are considered a “resident employee” (a ‘live-in’ employee is someone employed in a private household). Resident employees are employees who are required to live where they work. Resident employees must be compensated for time spent performing their assigned duties. For example, in your case, you have assigned duties from the hours of 6 AM to 9 AM and 3 PM to 8 PM. You must be paid for the work you do during these hours.
However, even though resident employees are required to be at the workplace premises for a specific period of time, they are not entitled to be paid for time spent simply being available. If resident employees are in the employment premises and they are simply waiting (for a call or an emergency to respond to), but they are free to do personal tasks while waiting (eating, grooming, watching TV, making calls, sleeping), then they have not incurred work hours.
“Work hours” is the time during which an employee is subject to the control of the employer. In the case of an employee who is required to reside on the employment premises, the time spent carrying out assigned duties or the time spent performing physical, mental or other specific tasks as required by the employer shall be counted as hours worked. If the employee is merely waiting and not performing any assigned tasks (and in fact, the employee is free to do personal tasks), then these hours are not considered hours worked. In other words, resident employees are not entitled to compensation simply for being on “stand-by.”
If, during the standby hours, the resident employee performs an assigned task (for example, respond to an emergency or assist a resident to the go the bathroom), then the time spent doing this task is considered hours worked. In this case, these hours should be compensated.
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