Question & Answer

Question: At our Credit Union we have four ATMs that are serviced by an armored car company. We have a beeper that an employee responds to during the day, and is carried at night and on weekends by "volunteer" employees. Although we do not pay a retainer to carry the beeper, we do compensate the employee $25 per call if they have to respond to an ATM malfunction. We do not have any employee call response after 9 p.m.

I have three questions. Are we taking a large risk in not maintaining dual control on the ATM malfunction response? Is it mandatory that we pay a retainer in addition to the per call fee to employees who carry the beeper on "off" hours? And can we make carrying the beeper part of employees' job descriptions?

Answer: We went to three sources for the answers to your questions.

First, you are taking a risk in not exercising dual control, but it seems to be a common risk. Most institutions do send out a lone service member, unless they are going out at night. Then dual control is exercised more for security than any other reason. If your auditor is comfortable with the situation, and your bonding company doesn't object, then you may have to live with it.

On the second question regarding paying a retainer, we talked to the United States Department of Labor. They told us this is a case-by-case decision, based on flexibility. If it is not during working hours, but the person who carries the beeper is "flexible"-i.e. able to move or drive about and not restricted to any one place-and is not required to reach the ATM within a time limit-for instance, within five minutes of the time the beeper goes off-then there is no requisite fee required for simply being available.

If, on the other hand, the person is restricted in movement, or has to sit in one location, waiting for the call-then compensation (probably in the form of a retainer or on an hourly basis) could be required.If flexible in movement, but required to service an ATM within time limits-then you must compensate from the time the person leaves their location to the time they return after servicing the machine. That compensation must be no less than minimum wage of $4.25 per hour.

As we discussed in our conversation, most financial institutions do compensate their employees in some manner for "being available" by paying some kind of a retainer in addition to the service fee.All of this information is from the U.S. Department of Labor. Look to your state law for additional rulings that may have other requirements.

As for your last question-we talked to three very knowledgeable banking human resource people and we also put the question to the Dept. of Labor. The answer was the same from all experts-Yes, you can make carrying a beeper and responding to service calls at an ATM part of a job description.Note: In researching for the answer above, we did a quasi-survey and thought the answers would be of interest to our readers. Our question was, "Do you pay a retainer to carry a beeper for ATM service? How much? Do you pay by the call? How much?"

Our answers, from bankers in 20 institutions from all over the country, ranged from $25 a week retainer to $100 a week-with many more on the lower end of the scale. Some pay no retainer, but pay $25 per call. Some also pay mileage-particularly those with far-flung ATMs. Some pay low retainers and pay $15 to $20 per call on top of the retainer. Almost all respondents said servicers are required to work only one week per month-more if they volunteer. Only one of the 20 said they pay no retainer and no per call fee-it is considered to be part of the employee's job. But they indicated the employee who does ATM service receives additional compensation through other means.

Comment: "We read with interest the information on Totten Trusts on your last new accounts page. We have made it a policy not to open Totten Trust accounts with the beneficiary's name first. In case of a tax lien or a garnishment, we were afraid it might be confusing as to who owns the funds if the trustee's name appears last on the account and the social security number is that of the beneficiary. In order to service our customers better, however, we allow children to become joint owners as soon as they can sign in cursive writing-usually at 7 years. At that point, their name can go first."

Copyright © 1992 Bankers' Hotline. Originally appeared in Bankers' Hotline, Vol. 3, No. 6, 11/92