OnCall employees required to provide their own cell phone

A

an0nemus

New Member
Jurisdiction
Missouri
Hello everyone...

I've worked in MO, for my present company for the last 5 years, the industry is IT. In that time we've had an oncall rotation, (1 month on, 1 month off). In that entire time the company has provided a cell phone for pages/texts while we're on call. However, they've decided that they will no longer provide a cell phone for this purpose and we must supply our own.

Given that the company has provided the device in the past, is this legal? Granted MO is an 'at will' state, so if we refuse we can be fired for that reason.
 
an0nemus said:
Given that the company has provided the device in the past, is this legal?
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Yes, it's legal. And you can be fired for refusing.

My guess is that the phone thing is a harbinger of other company cutbacks and more onerous requirements on the employees.

I would be looking for another job before all the employees get fed up and flood the job market.
 
adjusterjack said:
Yes, it's legal. And you can be fired for refusing.

My guess is that the phone thing is a harbinger of other company cutbacks and more onerous requirements on the employees.

I would be looking for another job before all the employees get fed up and flood the job market.
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We were recently acquired by another company. We're expecting bloodletting in a month or two. My guess this is to drive people to quit before they have to lay them off and give them a severance package.

'Luckily' for me, all of the people that do my type of work are 2-3 states away (ie I've only met my direct boss 3 times....). I fully expect to get fired if I refuse (and honestly, I'm probably going to play a game...how close can I get to breaking the rules without actually breaking them.. "I have a cell phone, here you go...oh, it doesn't receive text messages....you didn't specify..."
 
Play games at your own risk. It would be entirely legal to fire you and if you are fired, it is extremely likely you would be disqualified from receiving UI for that kind of stunt.
 
ElleMD said:
Play games at your own risk. It would be entirely legal to fire you and if you are fired, it is extremely likely you would be disqualified from receiving UI for that kind of stunt.
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oh I realize if you play stupid games you shouldn't be surprised to win stupid prizes.
 
Do you also realize that only three states ever require severance be paid, that Missouri is not one of those states, and that even in the three that occasionally do it is limited to certain employees and certain situations?

And that in 49 out of 50 states, including Missouri, you can be fired because the day of the week ends in Y?
 

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