You are the EMS Operations Director of Most Excellent EMS (MEEMS), a small-town not-for-profit EMS service that covers a rural community of 14,000 people and an area of approximately 250 square miles. MEEMS has only two full-time employed (FTE) "paid" paramedics and two FTE "paid" EMTs. Additional coverage for many evenings, weekends, and all nights, are provided by on-call responders that carry pagers and mobile telephones. Approximately 10 volunteer responders help to provide coverage, several of which work for other municipal services, such as sanitation, water treatment, and the municipality government office.
The policy for the responders to be on call states that "Responders will remain within municipality limits and able to arrive at the EMS Base within 5 minutes of notification of an emergency call for service."
Compensation for coverage:
Payment for EMS Responses
$25 per hour from the time of arrival at the EMS Base to the time that the EMS response unit returns to the Base back in service
Payment for On Call Coverage
$3 per hour for paramedic coverage and $2.50 per hour for EMT-B coverage
Challenge
Carl Stratton, a relatively new paramedic employee who had recently moved to the area from a major metropolitan area in another state is challenging the on-call policy. Paramedic Stratton states that services are required to pay at least the minimum wage for on call staffing because they must remain "at the ready" to respond to the Base within 5 minutes of being called.
Based on reading in this document (Link to document) and any other sources that you obtain, describe how you would handle the challenge from Carl Stratton. Do you agree or disagree with his position?