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I t is alarming to see how many companies have inconsistent travel time policies for their non-exempt employees, or no travel time policy at all. These same companies have varying definitions of what is considered “worked” or “paid” time. Rules of the road When does travel time become paid time? If you don’t know the answer, you might need to check in with the U.S. Department of Labor and dust off your policy manual.
time, rest/meal period, sleeping time, lectures, meetings, training, travel time, home-to-work travel, home-to-work on a special one-day assignment in another city, travel all in a day’s work, and travel away from home community. Any time an employee is “engaged and waiting” to work, he/she must be paid. Examples include driving from the main location to the work site, driving between work sites, eating lunch while continuing to answer phones, and waiting at the airport to board a plane during normal business hours. “According to the U.S. Department of Labor, all hours worked must be paid.”
How do you define compensable time in the following scenarios: ❚ ❚ Employee who reports to the main company loca- tion, and then gets into a company provided vehicle to drive to the work site. ❚ ❚ Employee who drives directly to the job site from his/her home. ❚ ❚ Employee who drives between client locations throughout the normal business day. ❚ ❚ Employee who travels out of town for training, or to attend company sponsored events. ❚ ❚ Employee who travels out of town to visit with cli- ents. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, all hours worked must be paid. Depending on the circumstances all of the following may be considered hours worked: waiting time, on-call
Kristi Weierbach
See KRISTI WEIERBACH, page 10
THE ZWEIG LETTER October 31, 2016, ISSUE 1174
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