Travel & Holidays Work travel

Hi all,

Am curious to hear your thoughts.

If your employer sends you to work interstate or overseas and your flight leaves on a Saturday for example and you don't arrive till Sunday night, should the employee pay you for the lost weekend? As in, should you receive 2 days pay for the time travelled as this was not Monday-Friday?

 

I would say it depends on your position and role in the company ... and is the travel to your advantage in any way - or is it purely 100% profit for the company?

Hubby is an engineer and paid rather well in the mines ... the unwritten code is that, if they are required to work extra hours (such as during maintenance) then they stay back without extra pay ... but in the same vein, he does has some flexibility to occasionally start a little later or slip away early.

 

Depends on your situation, wages or celery? Salary you'd like to think time in loo or at least a day off. But I also wouldn't be surprised to hear of employers expecting it as part of your contract and role responsibility

 

It depends on whether you are salaried or hourly pay based and your level within the company. If salaried and the travel is infrequent then the employer could argue that this travel falls in the bucket of "reasonable additional hours" without extra compensation or time in lieu.

Also depends on how many hours it is. Are we talking a flight to Europe or are we talking about a local short domestic flight? In your example I don't think it would be unreasonable to get a day in lieu for your travel.

If you are on hourly pay then you should be paid for the travel time.

Also check your employment contract as there may be clauses in there relating to travel. Company policy may also exist relating to this too.

vtt

 

Lol - is OP a rabbit? At least offer carrots.

 

Maybe a goat? Not sure have to find out at a meetup whether security let's them in

I'm sure a lot of people out there on a salary did the numbers on the hrs worked to salary, would find their hourly wage would come in lower than flipping burgers! Hence celery

 

It's salary work and overseas travel. I've gone on two trips now and both times both on the way there and back it has been weekend travel. So I've lost 4 weekends total.

 

Are they doing weekend flights to get you on cheap seats? Good luck getting time off! Do you get any extra free time when you're over there?

 

My iPhone autocorrected a clients name to "sea boat" - that was an interesting email exchange.

 

Weekends are off as free time. But I think that would be fairly normal

 

If you wanted to be pedantic you could account for every minute of excess time you are owed when on business travel. However this may result in your never being offered travel or interesting work by management again.

When I used to work in big corporates, I would spend 6 months a year travelling nationally or internationally. I lived overseas 3 times (2 x US, 1 x London). I saw it all as an excellent life experience and personal development opportunity rather than seeing how may hours in lieu I was owed for all the crazy project work. I have no doubt that without the exposure I had to business projects on secondment overseas, I would not have half the skills I have today, which have allowed me to earn far more than 2 days in lieu back pay.

On a side note, I once asked an employee to duck up the road and buy a computer part for a client's machine. It was about a 2km round trip. When he got back the first thing he asked for was the expense claim form to claim back his $1.38 in vehicle expenses. Do you reckon he got asked to work on anything interesting that happened outside of 8.30-5.30 on the dot? Nope he just sat on the helpdesk and answered the phone.

 

Haha better than dream boat I guess

 

Or what you can do is something a past colleague did. He got sent away overseas (first and only time) on a weekend to keep costs down. Colleague didn't want to go, but while he was there Skyped his family For the week he was there using his Australian mobile phone wifi hotspot! He only worked around oz and wasn't very technology savy! Bill came in at $5k!!

 

I travel a lot for business.
It depends on the circumstance. If travel was a requirement when you started its generally just a 'suck it up' scenario. However, there is usually a general understanding that you will gain some level of benifit from using your time.
Some management groups will just use and abuse you. They will put you on red-eye flights taking crappy connections and then refuse to pay for hotel stays etc.
Others will be more understanding and recognise that you are being inconvienced. Paying a bit extra on flights/hotels and giving you some time in leu.
So really it depends.

My general policy is that as long as it is 'fair' then live with it and enjoy the travel. Note I said fair - not equal!

One possibility is to ask to fly earlier - say on the thursday/friday and take the weekend as a mini-break. Usually you will need to stump up for the extra hotel costs etc. Most (though not all) employers will let this slide.

Blacky

 

And don't forget you get the advantage of the frequent flyer points.
Marg

 

The last company I was with was pretty much your time was theirs, when it came to travel and grumbled about expenses, I had to bum lifts with the client or contractor did not feel valued in this regard.

A company I worked for previously recognised the inconvenience of being away and put you up in good accommodation, told you to have a good meal, and didn't say a thing when you had a couple from the mini bar.

 

Similar experience here,
Once we were on a flight to Bali on a Sunday for a national conference (yes it was healer to fly other states there than Perth) and one of our workers asked "do we get paid for being here today?" (As it was a Sunday)
Our boss just laughed at him, and said yes as long as for the rest of the day when we land you stay in your hotel room and don't enjoy it.

 

I find that I put in longer days when I travel just to keep up with what I would otherwise have completed that day.

I had one which paid lwa plus. .. but it was capped, another covered all expenses (arranged travel, accommodation, meal reimbursement etc).