It is well accepted that the time required by an employee to get to and from work – commuting time - is generally not considered work time regardless of whether the employee starts and ends his day at his residence or at the employer’s lodging. But that doesn't mean you won't end up paying for that time, in a way. .h1 {font-family:'Merriweather';font-weight:700;} A recent European Free Trade Association Court decision found that travel time in itself constitutes working time if the travel is ordered by the employer. Each day, he must report to his employer’s headquarters at … Under federal law, it is work time only when it cuts across the employee’s normal workday and/or requires the employee to work on weekends or days when he or she would not otherwise be required to work. We don't get paid travel time but are expected to be onsite for 9am and leave the last site at 5pm wherever that may be. Are employees entitled to be paid for travel time? Generally speaking, if your employee has to follow a tight schedule of appointments set out by you or their line manager, then their travel will probably count as working time. At another one I had an unwritten policy with my boss that I would bill my active travel time (driving to the airport, e-mail on the plane and such) but not the time I was watching a movie or sleeping on an overnight flight to Europe. Travel time is the time an employee spends in transit for work. The outcome of this ruling was that any workers without a fixed place of work, who travel between clients and appointments from their home, should have that travel counted as part of their working time. It can be based on employee seniority or availability, or other criteria the employer chooses. Many employers try to pay for travel time but consider it a separate category like “Other time”, or “Non-productive Time”, or “Misc. Whether these rulings affect your business will depend on the nature of how your employees work and how much control they have over their work days. Read about a 2020 court case. Washington, DC 20210 .manual-search ul.usa-list li {max-width:100%;} HR Issues & Laws Wage & Hour Issues: Travel Time. Normal travel from home to work and return at the end of the workday is not work time. For example, where an employee hoping for a promotion with the employer takes training in order to qualify for it, time spent taking the training is not considered to be work time. Waiting time. Time spent traveling, during normal work hours, to and from a work site or to and from another city is counted as hours worked, whether as a driver or passenger by car or common carrier (airplane, train, boat, bus). Registered in England. This has also been backed up by case law. Handy Reference Guide to the Fair Labor Standards Act - Answers many questions about the FLSA and gives information about certain occupations that are exempt from the Act. You could also consider offering staff time off in lieu for any business travel outside of their normal working hours. This will ensure there’s no room for confusion and will save any surprises on pay day. For every 24-hour period, workers are entitled to at least 11 hours of rest. However, it’s not possible to predict exactly what will happen, so for the meantime, the above rulings still stand, but we’ll be sure to update you if anything changes. This would reduce travelling time and therefore cut down the number of hours the individual has to work. Hence, an employee who usually works Monday – Friday, 8 to 5 will be paid for all time (including the drive to the airport since it is not a regular workday) on a Sunday to arrive for a Monday meeting. Same Day Travel. Resources. It depends on the reason for the trip, the employee's usual work hours, and whether the employee stays overnight for work. Liberty Mut. .dol-alert-status-error .alert-status-container {display:inline;font-size:1.4em;color:#e31c3d;} The site is secure. In these situations, it’s advisable to pay employees their normal wage or salary as well as expensing them for their travel. Answer under the FLSA: This employee should be compensated for their travel and work time from 9-to-5 on Friday and Monday, and assuming that they were a passenger in a plane and/or taxi during their travel home, and they were not asked to and did not perform any work during that travel time, they would only need to be compensated for that extra hour that they worked on Monday evening. Time spent in home-to-work travel by an employee in an employer-provided vehicle, or in activities performed by an employee that are incidental to the use of the vehicle for commuting, generally is not "hours worked" and, therefore, does not have to be paid. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site. As a small business owner, it can be tricky keeping up to date with different employment laws. It’s essential to keep employment contracts under review for all of your staff to ensure they’re up to date and legally sound. #block-googletagmanagerfooter .field { padding-bottom:0 !important; } Law, crime and justice . Paying staff for travel time, particularly within the domiciliary care sector, has been the subject of recent publicity after an internal company review by one of the largest care providers in the UK suggested it had failed to pay the National Minimum Wage. An Employee travelling for official business is entitled to have travel time recognised as Ordinary Hours. Under the UK's National Minimum Wage Act and Regulations, the general position is that travel time between home and a place of work is excluded from the obligation to pay the NMW, including for mobile workers. The laws around travelling for work, and if this counts as ‘working time’, can seem complicated. Accidents, health and safety law and workplace conditions. Travel time is considered compensable work hours where the employer requires its employees to meet at a designated place, use the employer’s transportation to and from the worksite, and prohibits employees from using their own transportation (Morillion v.Royal Packing Co., 22 Cal.4th 575 (2000)). Time taken to travel to and from work at the beginning and end of each day should count as working time under the law, according to the Europe’s highest court. 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