This a subspeciality of employment law, and is complex enough that it's not my thing.
That said my understanding and experience is they can't be considered a contractor in this case (which is the goal)
Contractors must be able to control their hours.
In fact, that's the main legal test - do they have autonomy in controlling their work hours.
This trick of forcing them to be reserved but not paying them, yet claiming they are contractors is an old one, and as far as i know has rarely if ever been successful.
That is - it has been one of the main determining factors in whether somebody is a contractor, and it is remarkably hard to find a court case where the court was like "yeah this is fine" and not "actually these are employees".
To cement this further, the department of labor issued proposed guidance on this last year saying (essentially) that exerting control in ways that force lack of autonomy in practice is the same thing as controlling their hours directly- ie directly on point.
If they are instead hourly employees then they already have to be paid for the time you force them to be unavailable for other things.
That said my understanding and experience is they can't be considered a contractor in this case (which is the goal) Contractors must be able to control their hours. In fact, that's the main legal test - do they have autonomy in controlling their work hours.
This trick of forcing them to be reserved but not paying them, yet claiming they are contractors is an old one, and as far as i know has rarely if ever been successful. That is - it has been one of the main determining factors in whether somebody is a contractor, and it is remarkably hard to find a court case where the court was like "yeah this is fine" and not "actually these are employees".
To cement this further, the department of labor issued proposed guidance on this last year saying (essentially) that exerting control in ways that force lack of autonomy in practice is the same thing as controlling their hours directly- ie directly on point.
If they are instead hourly employees then they already have to be paid for the time you force them to be unavailable for other things.