Employee travel time
earlearl
31 Posts
Our company is based in Texas. Employees are hired from all over the US and employees travel all over the US on different projects to work for our clients on temporary projects. They never come to our company office for anything. They mostly travel on weekends via plane/car to their destination and ready for work Monday a.m. They can travel to/from their homes every other weekend until their current project ends in which we pay for. All hotel expenses and rental car fees are paid by us. Question is: The time they spend traveling over the weekend home and back to their current/next assignment - is this considered time worked? If they travel between 8 - 5 on weekends, is this time worked? What about after 5:00 pm during week or on weekends? What if they drive a rental car to another project location they will be working at (driving to over the weekend)--(which could be in another state)-- is this considered time worked? Is there a law/policy that can be reviewed that discusses these specific concerns? Any info would be appreciated. Thanks.
Comments
The obligations relate to whether these ees are exempt from OT or not. If they are exempt, you need not track travel time since their salary would cover all time worked. If they are nonexempt, then you need to pay careful attn to the rules.
Basically, for overnight trips, you need to pay travel time when it occurs during working hours. For ex, if ee normally works 8 to 5 and travels anytime between 8 to 5, you pay it. It doesn't matter if it occurs on weekend. You simply look at the 8 to 5, as the case may be, for all days of the week. If ee takes an evening flight after 5, you don't have to pay it. (but some companies do as a policy matter).
Hope it helps, this area generates a lot of confusion.