In a BLR webinar titled "Wage & Hour Road Rules for HR: Employee Travel Pay Explained," Michael G. Petrie outlined the circumstances under which employers may be obligated to pay for travel.

In the webinar, Petrie examined over a dozen pay for travel scenarios. In part one of this article, Petrie outlined scenarios such as travel that keeps an employee away from home overnight and when an employee who comes home from work is called back to return to the workplace because of an emergency. Here he covers five more pay for travel scenarios.

Pay For Travel Scenario 5: Use Of Private Automobile For Travel Away From Home

If an employee is offered public transportation but requests permission to drive his car instead, the employer may count as hours worked either the time spent driving the car or the time he would have had to count as hours worked during working hours if the employee had used the public conveyance.

Pay For Travel Scenario 6: Work Performed While Traveling

Any work which an employee is required to perform while travelling is considered work time. For example, preparing for a business meeting during an overnight flight is work time, if work is performed.

Another example would be an employee who drives a truck, bus, automobile, boat or airplane, or an employee who is required to ride therein as an assistant, is working while riding.

The exception to this rule is that such an employee is not working during a bona fide meal time or when he/she is permitted to sleep in adequate facilities furnished by the employer.

Pay For Travel Scenario 7: Operating an Employer’s Vehicle for Employee’s Convenience

This is treated the same as general home-to-work travel: it is generally not work time. There is no position taken for emergency situations, though the frequency of emergency calls may be determinative.

Pay For Travel Scenario 8: Driving Employer’s Vehicle to Transport Other Employees

When an employee elects to carpool with other employees in the employer’s vehicle, this generally is NOT work time. However, there are other factors to consider:

• Is the transportation primarily for the benefit of the participating employees?
• Is participation entirely voluntary?
• Is the driver chosen by the participating employees?
• Are the pick-up times and route(s) established by the participating employees?
• Does the employer have any control over the arrangement? (Companies should avoid controlling carpools unless such control is necessary for the work to be performed.)

If the employer directs the employee to a pick-up spot, driving time from that spot to the work site is work time.

Pay For Travel Scenario 9: Home-Worker’s Travel

Time spent by home-workers in traveling to-and-from the employer’s premises to obtain or drop off work-related materials is work time. The exception is that any personal errands included in such travel are deductable.

For more information on travel pay, order the webinar recording. To register for a future webinar, visit http://catalog.blr.com/audio.

Attorney Michael G. Petrie practices in the areas of employment litigation and labor and employment counseling at Jorden Burt LLP in Simsbury, Connecticut. He represents employers and management in claims of discrimination, harassment, retaliation, wrongful termination, breach of employment contracts, violation of wage and hour laws, negligence/intentional infliction of emotional distress, and other employment disputes.