Travel outside business hours

[notthedash]

For the people here who travel for work, what is the arrangement for travel outside of normal business hours (e.g on a Sunday or a Friday night)? Does your company pay you overtime (at overtime rates), or are you able to take the time off at an hour for hour basis, or is the travel a donation of your time?

 

[hedge]

I travel in company time. I.e I am paid for 9 days of work, but on the 9th day, I spend 2 hours travelling (and am home by 11am) and am paid for the whole day. All travel is always on the business' time, not mine.

 

[moa999]

Very much a donation of my time, as is all other o/t

 

[MDC]

Unfortunately I work for a company that doesn't pay me for travelling on my time. Most travel is done out of hours so it doesn't eat into the working day - their choice, not mine.

I tend to lose a lot of Sundays and Friday nights travelling this way

 

[sarlatcycles]

I travel extensively to mine sites 2 -3 times a month. Most travel involves flying out on the first available flight..5:30am ish and coming back on the last available from the remote site so generally home after 8pm.

I get time in lieu while the project gets charged for my hours that I'm in the air and in the airport

 

[MelUser]

Best not to ruffle work feathers in these times of redundancies etc.

If I am travelling business and collecting status credits/frequent flyer points I don't mind travelling on my time (I consider it a hobby!)

 

[NM]

If I travel on a weekend, then I am paid the per-diem allowance for the travel day and that is about it. In theory I should be able to claim time-off-in-lieu, but that has never happened.

 

[serfty]

I work on a "professional work day basis", whether it's 2, 6, 9 or 12 hours in 24, I still get paid for the one day.

I am not to exceed 5 "days" per week unless pre-arranged.

Travel time is generally considered part of my working day ... with a few exceptions for long-haul.

 

[Nigelinoz]

I'm self employed but if a client requires me to travel from Albury to another city then I will pay for the ticket and bill the client for it.
I charge the client travelling time at the rate of 50% of my hourly rate from home to job and back home again.

 

[Dave Noble]

I travel during normal business hours whereever possible otherwise , when I do need to travel at weekend, I take TOIL. I don't , unless there is no feasible flight option to avoid it , travel overnight

Dave

 

[2muchplastic]

Firstly I'm salaried, and can earn no overtime or allowances whatsoever.
My area covers South-East Asia, Australia and China, so most flights are pretty long. The arrangement with my employer is that anything more than half a weekend day used in travelling will result in a full day's holiday in lieu, and as it is deemed to be completely inefficient to be travelling out on a Monday and return on a Thursday night (and I agree), so I end up using lots of Saturdays and Sundays.

Weekends away are not considered travelling time, but I guess that's just tough. I've had some interesting weekends away, (effectively paid for by the company) walking the Great Wall, sightseeing in Hong Kong, etc etc.

 

[Flashback]

Firstly I'm salaried, and can earn no overtime or allowances whatsoever.

Being on salary doesn't mean you should earn no allowances. I'd definitely be querying that one, as it's specified by the ATO.

 

[serfty]

I presume 2muchplastic travel expenses are paid by the employer. (Travel, Food, Accommodation, etc. ...)

 

[jaredr]

I basically take TOIL if I am required to travel on weekends. Early morning/late night flights interstate I take as part of the gig. I might start late, finish early if I have no pressing things happening though

 

[simongr]

I work on the principal that as I check my email in the evenings, do conference calls in the late/early AM that travel is no different. It is just part of the job. My contract specifies that I can be asked to do additional hours without penalties.

Mind you by the same token I am at home on an undertermined amount of paid leave to help with mrssimongr and babyverysimpending at the moment without any real questions asked...

 

[2muchplastic]

I presume 2muchplastic travel expenses are paid by the employer. (Travel, Food, Accommodation, etc. ...)

Absolutely! I'm pretty lucky that my employers have arrangements with some pretty good hotels, there's no backstreet dives on OUR list! And our per meal spend "limits" (on a reimbursed against receipts basis - there are recommended maximums, but in practice these are not rigidly enforced) are more than reasonable.

So long as you don't take the mickey, there's no trouble.

 

[pauly7]

Best not to ruffle work feathers in these times of redundancies etc.

Work for MacBank perhaps?

Bit of both for me.

Funnily enough we are a huge multinational and we still are struggling to find people in sales and marketing, there is still a big skills shortage in Aus that needs filling.

 

[Timtammi]

As an emplpyer running a small business I find it interesting to read your replies to this. Sometimes us employers forget what its like to be on the other side and need to be reminded of the other point of view!

I often travel with my employees around Asia as our territory covers the AP region. We dont have any defined policy about this and to be honest it never occurred to me to pay my staff overtime for travelling outside of normal working hours. They all get paid a fair salary for what they do, and when travelling I would make sure they get some time off to do a little sightseeing or whatever, especially if the schedule has been gruelling. I would also suggest a day off on our return or say its fine to come in late. I'm also fine with employees partners accompanying us (at the employees cost for the airfares and as long as they dont get in the way of work) and would make sure we had at least one or 2 nights where the partners dinner was paid for by the company too if we are all eating together or not having a dinner meeting. I guess what I'm trying to say is I try to be flexible and fair and everyone seems happy with that. Of course they all get their expenses covered so thats not an issue.

Times are tough these days and I certainly cant afford to be lavish in what I'm offering but I find if you are fair and flexible and make sure your employees have rewarding work everyone seems pretty happy!

Cheers

 

[JohnK]

When I was travelling for work a few years ago I would get time off in lieu for any travel outside of business hours. I know people in that company who if they went to Perth for 2 weeks would work for 9 days and come back on the Friday at the companys expense.

 

[Evan]

Depends on me, i could claim time in lieu however i usually dont claim it but i do get a weekend in another country so hard to complain, and depending on destination i simply travel on work time. (All depends what i get out of it, and how busy it is at work)
E