The workers brought a case to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) arguing that time spent travelling to work should be counted as working time. However, travel away from home on official duty is considered as compensable. For example, an electrician reports to the shop at 8am for a safety meeting, receives job instructions and spends the rest of the day driving to different jobs. As for travel time, travel from home to office and vice-versa is not compensable. They would then travel to their appointments directly from home. Travel Time: Whether or not travel time is considered work time depends on the type of travel involved. Commute Time: Time spent traveling from work to home and from home to work is not part of “hours worked.” CFR calls this a “normal incident of employment.” However, if an employee is called back out to work after having returned home in the case of an emergency, travel time is included in "hours worked." People do want some separation between work and home — a time to think and decompress from the day. The time is not only hours worked on regular working days during normal working hours but also during corresponding hours on nonworking days. Travel between home and work is not tax deductible, nor a wage needing to be paid. Travel time to work. If, however, the time the employee spends traveling is during his/her regular work hours, that travel time will generally count as "time worked" — even if the travel occurs on a day that the employee would not ordinarily have worked! This meant that the employees did not have a fixed place of employment and had to travel to all their jobs to install security equipment. The Working Time Directive, which applies to all EU countries including the UK, states that workers may not be made to work for more than 48 hours per week (averaged out over 17 weeks). Advertisement Neither the Act, nor the Code defines what falls inside or outside of ‘working time’: the Act (s 9) merely states that employees may not be required to ‘work’ beyond a certain number of ordinary and overtime hours. 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. The curriculum for the classes corresponds closely to a Marketing class offered at the local community college. The issue. However, I travel from work to another site, and back to work, it is paid as vehicle allowance, but not necessarily in my hours. Hello, we provide concise yet detailed articles on "Travel Choices: Is Travel Time Considered Work Time" topic. Generally speaking, travel time that occurs during an employee’s normal work hours— even if such travel occurs outside of the regular work week (e.g., Saturday and Sunday) — is considered hours worked. Generally, the decisions and materials suggest that an employee has a greater likelihood of having travel time viewed as compensable work if she/he is travelling in an employer vehicle from the employer's premises to a worksite (including from one job site to another throughout the course of the day) and from the last job site back to the employer's premises. An example of a training that would not be considered work time is the following: A company offers “Marketing 101” to its 600 lower level employees from 6pm to 8pm every other Wednesday. Sometimes OH can leave a bit early but it's certainly never extra money or time off on a 1 for 1 basis. This includes travel during normal working hours and travel between sites or clients since the travelling is an essential part of the work. Travel away from home is clearly work time when it cuts across the employee's workday. If travelling time is to be considered “working time” then this will impact on an employee’s weekly hours, rest periods, break entitlement etc. The National Minimum Wage Regulations do not require an employer to pay for travelling time between a client and the worker’s home, unless they do “unmeasured work”, which means they have no fixed hours or pay and are not paid according to their hours of work or output. The information here is sourced well and enriched with great visual photo and video illustrations. For non-exempt employees, different types of travel time are considered compensable time. Travel Away from Home Community: Travel that keeps an employee away from home overnight is considered as travel away from home. Any time that an employee spends driving during their work day is considered compensable time. The Fair Labor Standards Act describes most of the travel time law in the U.S. Travel time can count towards overtime, but only if it involves work required by the employer. It’s made clear in the Working Time Regulations 1998 time spent travelling to work from home, and from work to home (for those with a fixed place of work), is not considered working time. When you find the article helpful, feel free to share it with your friends or colleagues. Travel time during non-work hours isn't compensated. Unions have welcomed a ruling by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) that travel time for mobile workers should be treated as working time. Your normal daily commute to and from work is not considered work time travel. Travel time could be considered work in the following cases: if the employee takes a company vehicle home in the evening for the employer’s convenience; if the employee is required to transport other staff or supplies to or from the work place or work site; and; if the employee has a usual work place but is required to travel to another location to perform work. Because the regulations for overtime pay for travel time can vary between professions and states, you may need a human resources expert to determine whether your travel time counts as "work." As this question is posted to the Time Travel group, I am going to assume a few things rather than treating it like an ordinary HR question. Time spent as a passenger of an airplane, train, boat, bus or automobile outside of regular working hours will not be considered hours worked. However, home to work travel outside of your regular commute hours may be compensable if your employer called you back to work on an emergency basis. Under the European court’s ruling, time spent in transit before and after work must now be considered “work time” for workers without a fixed place of work, such as many of Tyco’s employees. Under the provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act, travel time is considered work time for the purposes of nonexempt hourly wage and overtime computation as outlined below. The time that you spend meeting with clients or engaging in other work-related activities counts as work time, whereas time spent relaxing at the hotel or pursuing one’s personal interests is considered free time. Neither the European Law nor the WTR state whether travel to and from a place of work or between places of work should be considered 'working time'. Travel to and from the hotel and airport must also be paid if it falls during the employee's normal hours. This regular rate of pay overtime calculation can be tedious if the employee is paid at different rates of pay in the pay week. Forum Legend : … Should Joe’s travel time, Mary’s attendance at the Monday meetings and Chris’s extra 15-minute’s effort in the mornings be regarded as working time? Defining work hours in California is a little tricky due to California law. Example 4: An employee's regular commute to and from work was 10 minutes. It is clearly work time when it cuts across the employee’s workday. Travel time from office to first worksite of the day if a stop at the main office or jobsite is required before starting work for the day Travel time minus the normal commute (example: if an employee’s normal commute is 20 minutes and the worksite is an hour away, 40 minutes of the travel time is compensable work time) A large study of more than 1000 workers in San Francisco found that their ideal one-way commute was actually 16 minutes (less than 2 percent of people wanted a commute time of shorter than 4 minutes, and only 1.2 percent wanted no commute time at all). The CJEU agreed with them. If you want to keep your job, it's probably not worth the few extra dollars you'd get out of it this one time. The Case . In this example, since the flight is at 9.a.m., a time the employee would normally be at work, the travel time on the flight is considered work time. This means that hours where you are not working do not count as work time, even if you are paid for them. We work in the telecoms industry visiting multiple sites daily. Thankfully, this if fairly straightforward for you. In some cases, they had to travel for up to 3 hours to their first appointment. He returns to the shop at 5pm to drop off materials, speak with his supervisor, and turn in his time sheet. This means that if an employer knows that an employee has performed work, even if the employee was not specifically instructed to do so or if the work was done outside the employee's normal hours, the employee must be paid for time spent doing this work. This user would like to thank 3Wishes for this useful post: drmom #8 23.04.2013, 01:24 Snoopy . If travel time in either direction or travel time plus work time exceeds eight hours in a workday, the employee must receive travel pay at one and one-half times the regular pay rate. Any of the lower level employees may attend. One Day Work Assignment in Another City When a nonexempt staff member travels to another community for a one-day work assignment, all traveling is counted as time worked except travel time between home and airport, … According to this part of the Canadian Labour Code, your travel time "could" be considered work time (super clear, I know). An employer will have to consider whether, in light of increased “working time”, an employee is receiving sufficient rest time between shifts, and his hours are not exceeding the weekly working time limit of 48 hours per week. In my case, I travel from home to work, it is in my own time. Identification. It means there’s no need to pay these individuals for hours spent commuting at the beginning and end of a working day. This time has not previously been considered as work by many employers. 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. See question 9 for more details on the different kinds of travel. With regard to attendance at lectures, meetings, training programs, and other similar activities, it shall not be counted as working time if all of the following conditions are met: It is at your expense. The case involved a Norwegian policeman, Mr Thue, who had a usual place of work (his local police station). Whether or not this is the case in your situation will depend since the courts decide what constitutes work time travel on case-by-case basis. It wouldn't be considered commuting in this case, as you're traveling from the employer's property to another work site in your manager's vehicle. 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