Travel Time Legal question

[buck naked]

Originally Posted by GregW

unit731- if the employee was valuable enough I might give him a gasoline only credit card. In any case I would negotiate.

FWIW - I think all salaries should be posted on the company bullitin board or website. That way the best would know they were being paid more than the slackers.

that would backfire with a lot of companies because now-a-days slackers get more $ for whining than the guy who does his work and keeps his mouth shut

[BF66389]

Originally Posted by buck naked

that would backfire with a lot of companies because now-a-days slackers get more $ for whining than the guy who does his work and keeps his mouth shut

Some companies actually do things like that:
1) Salaries are open knowledge
2) Employees are "laddered" vs. employees at a similar level

It works very well- the result is that salaries are consistant within a given level and everyone always knows where they stand regarding performance, promotions, layoffs, etc.

There are some policies that go with it to ensure it isn't skewed by a hateful manager and that folks who just moved into a new job have 6 months/a year to "pick up" their performance without being rated at the bottom, etc.

[SeacoastLady]

Should have been more clearer. Normally with our construction business we offer the guys to come to the shop and drive to job site in one truck rather than using their own vehicle and gas. The driver is the only one getting paid travel time (start time from shop), the other employees get paid from job site start and end time. Law states when an employee comes to the shop and lifts a finger i.e. helps loads a truck for example, then we have to pay them from that point on. We are trying to be competative in our business, and it makes it difficult if we continuously have to pay a few of them start and end time to and from shop, especially if they are traveling an hour to the job site. What I'm seeing is that a company policy has to be in compliance with the law.

[unit731]

Better read up of the FLSA - Fair Labor Standards Act.

I am by no means any expert in the construction trades.

My knowledge would surmise that work begins at a specific time - say 7:00 AM. If employees have to travel to a job site then they are paid from the 7:00 AM time that they reported to work - at your main place of businesss.

Someone else can chime in here. If you have a jobsite an hour away have them report directly at the jobsite at 7:00 AM. I don't think any travel time is required - but I don't have the knowledge about this.

I would assume that most builders construction types just have the employees show up at the job site with no travel pay from their place of residence.

What do your peers do?

Maybe others can chime in here for clarification.

[NH2NCMom]

have them load the truck the night before for the next day when they all return to the shop. And yes if they help load the truck or do anything that constitutes doing part of the job, they must/should be paid (wouldn't you want to be paid if you typed an invoice "before hours"). However if they bring their own vehicle to work, then they don't get paid until they get to the job site or to the shop. But once they get to the shop, travel time to the site should be paid - and I believe that's part of the law. Works the same for traveling salespeople or even therapists, social workers, computer geeks etc... working at different sites.

[geoff5093]

I have never even heard of a law that requires companies to pay for travel. I know most will pay for travel expenses when they require you to travel between sites and use your own car, for instance my work pays $0.50 per mile if I need to travel between sites to fix any issues or to attend meetings. However travel time to and from work are not reimbursed, and I don't feel they should be. If that were the case lots of employees would get jobs far away so they can collect that travel money.