Travel pay disputes, including business trips and mandatory off-site training to commuting time, waiting time, and on-call time, are the center of many employment lawsuits.
Here are 5 basic rules to understanding travel pay:
1. Commuting time from an employee’s regular place of work each day is not work time, so employers do not have to pay employees for this time.
2. If an employee spend time traveling to a location for a special assignment, or spends significant travel time for an emergency outside normal work hours, that time spent traveling during regular work hours is considered part of principal job duties. Travel in these circumstances or outside of normal work hours is compensable work time.
3. If an employee reports to a central location to pick up equipment before proceeding to his or her assigned worksite, the time spent traveling to the central location is not work time. The time spent traveling to the assigned worksite is work time.
4. Overnight travel or travel away from home is always work time under California law. Under federal law, it is work time only when it cuts across the employee’s normal workday and/or requires the employee to work on weekends or days when he or she would not otherwise be required to work.
5. Regular meal periods and time spent sleeping or in other leisure activities while traveling is not work time, and the employer does not have to pay the employee for this time.
The Law Offices of Payab & Associates is a Los Angeles based law firm with more than 17 years of experience in employment cases. Our office has successfully litigated many complex disputes including wrongful termination, sexual harassment, racial discrimination, wage and labor disputes, and retaliation cases.
Questions about your rights at the workplace? Contact the Law Offices of Payab & Associates @ (818) 918-5522 or visit http://employmentlawyersla.com/
