Should you be paid for being on call?

Should you be paid for being on call?

This article is about a woman who was working for a company that had to lay some people off, her boss offered her a deal to do the same job she was currently doing but getting paid hourly with no benefits (she was salary before). Because of the scare of unemployment she took the offer but had nothing in writing. Her boss has told her she is to be “on-call” pretty much 24/7 but she only gets paid 40hrs a week. I know there are companies out there that do have employees “on-call” like resturants for example. But resturants use their judgement based on how busy they get or how long of a wait they are on. I dont really see there being a need, except for emergency personnel, for having employee’s on-call. But then again I dont feel they should be getting paid all hours of the day and night because they are on-call. I am stuck in the middle on this one, there is a resonable argument for both sides.