Business phone after working hours – what do you need to know?

You finish work, put down your laptop, plan your evening, and suddenly the phone rings. A business number. What do you do? At a time when we are practically always “on the phone,” the lines between work life and private life are severely blurred. But what does the law say about this? Can you actually not take a call from your boss after hours? What can be done to ensure that after-hours phone calls do not lead to clashes on the employee-employer line?

Work is not 24/7, unless…

Let’s start with the basics. According to the Labor Code, you are entitled to at least 11 hours of uninterrupted rest each day and a minimum of 35 hours of weekly rest. Sounds clear, but there are exceptions to this rule. And these are the ones that sometimes cause an employee to take business calls after work.

If you are a salaried employee, your weekly working hours are an average of 40 hours, and a day should not exceed 8 hours. The company may ask you to work overtime, but only in case of special needs of the employer. Overtime is still normal work, only that it is outside of your established schedule. If you are, for example, a programmer working remotely, then answering a business phone call from your supervisor, checking emails, doing a quick fix – all of these can be considered overtime. And you should be compensated for overtime.

Note. The rule of 11 hours of rest does not apply to employees who manage the workplace on behalf of the employer, as well as when it is necessary to carry out rescue operations to protect human life or health, to protect property or the environment, or to remove an accident.

Employee on-call and the Labor Code

The Labor Code provides for something called on-call duty. Your employer can oblige you to remain on call for work – at home, in the office or elsewhere – even after hours. In practice, it may look like the boss tells you: “Tomorrow you are on call from 6pm to 10pm”. – you are to be available then, if only by phone. If you don’t do any work during that time, you are formally not working. But if you get a work phone call, answer an email or go somewhere – that’s doing your job.

On-call (except at home) is given time off or pay. If it is impossible to give time off – the employer must pay. And if the hourly rate is not clearly defined? Then the employee is entitled to 60% of the salary. On-call time must not violate your right to rest. That is, it can not last longer than, for example, 5 hours, if you previously worked 8.

What about other phones after the job is done?

Sometimes there is no on-call or command. Just a customer writes on Messenger, the boss calls in the evening, and a colleague asks about a file on WhatsApp. Do you have to respond?

No. If you do not have an explicit business order and are not formally on call, you are not obliged to provide work after hours. However, if you are answering, writing back, helping – you are doing it of your own free will. It is not part of your professional duties and you cannot expect to be paid afterwards. The law is on the side of the employer. According to the opinion of the Director of National Tax Information, the use of an employee’s telephone does not involve the creation of income on the part of the employee.

What to do when answering the business phone has become a nuisance?

You already know that on-call is a real part of many people’s working lives – especially in companies that operate 24/7, with multiple locations or direct contact with customers. But just as important as the regulations themselves is the question: how do you organize it all so you don’t go crazy?

If you have several people in your team on call, contacting customers, responding to requests or needing to be available regardless of location, telephony should make it easier for you, not harder. So let’s get down to specifics.

Business telephony that works with your head – ITH Tele

ITH Tele is a solution for those who do not want to worry about whether someone will be available to the employer after working hours and answer the phone. How does it work in practice?

Virtual Headquarters

You don’t need a server room, hardware or complicated configuration. The entire switchboard runs online – from anywhere in the world. On-call? Call switching? Routing after hours? You can set it all up with one click. An employee doesn’t answer? The system automatically switches the call to the next person. No stress.

SIP Trunk ITH

Do you have your own PBX? Great. With a SIP Trunk from ITH, you get a reliable channel for running multiple calls simultaneously – in HD quality, without interference or restrictions. You can hook up any tool you want, and we’ll make sure it just works.

Integration with CRM and other systems

On-call customer service is not just a phone call. Sometimes something needs to be checked quickly in the system. ITH allows integration with CRM, ERP or HIS – so employees have access to the data they need in real time. And the customer? He feels taken care of.

WebSystems for Call Center and Contact Center

If your business relies on intensive telephone communication – ITH Tele WebSystems gives you a set of tools to make managing your team, campaigns and on-call calls easier than ever.

You can set rules, assign queues, control response times and set up automatic contact scenarios. Everything works from the browser – zero installation, full control.

Why use ITH services?

The modern company no longer needs cabinets full of equipment and a tangle of cables. With ITH, everything goes online – without investment in infrastructure, but with tremendous flexibility. You decide what communication looks like in your business. We provide tools that are light, fast and tailored to how you actually work.

But that’s not all. Because in addition to functionality, cost matters, too.

How much does it cost? The transparency you’re looking for

At ITH, we understand well that as an entrepreneur you want to know the exact cost of your telecommunications subscription, without fine print and hidden fees. That’s why our packages are clear and the terms and conditions transparent.

Determine the cost of a single call – before you make it

Want even more control? With ITH, it’s possible. You can determine in detail the cost of a single call, regardless of the direction – domestic, international or to a mobile network. This way you can easily plan your budget and avoid unpleasant surprises.

On our management panel you have everything at your fingertips:

• real-time call reports,

• The ability to assign costs to specific departments or employees,

• alerts when the budget is exceeded,

• Full call history for analysis and cost optimization.

See how we can help you

Whether you run a company of a few people, a multi-branch structure or a large call center, we at ITH will find a solution exactly for you.