Should employer pay overnight expense?

slinkykev

Hi all,

Whilst my 'normal' place of work is designated at the company regional office, the nature of my work means I regularly have to work at temporary workplaces for periods of time, typically 4-6 months. This is covered in my Employment Contract along the lines of 'your nature of work requires you to travel to other sites as directed.' Until recently these temporary workplaces have all been within reasonable commuting distance.

However my employer now requires me to work at a temporary workplace which is a 200 mile daily round trip, which on average takes about 2.5 hours each way to drive. This drive is ontop of an average 8 hour day.

My argument is that it is not practical for me to drive these kind of distances on a daily basis a) because invarably my productivity will decrease and b) health & safety reasons - im likely to fall asleep at the wheel driving these distances on a daily basis!

However my Employer is refusing to pay for hotels, stating they are not Contractually or legally obliged to do so.

Is my Employer correct in saying this? Friends have suggested that either the Employer is required to pay for overnight stay's if the employee is required to work a long distance from home OR that if an Employee has to travel over a certain distance per day, then his Employer has to pay for an overnight stay.

If either of these are the case, or if anyone can think of any other grounds on which I can ask my Employer to pay please let me know. Many thanks.

titanflux

They can't be forced to pay expenses to which you're not contractually obliged, but this does stink and I'd be on the look-out for a new job. Also it's no good for their carbon footprint either.

I believe the distances and journey times you state are not 'reasonable' in terms of adding that travel time onto your contractual hours compared to your 'normal' contractual place of work. You would likely be within your right to negotiate some or all of your journey to be within your contractual working hours, or else you could leave and claim constructive dismissal (get some specialised employment law legal advice - there may be case law which proves your case already).

Alternatively it's worth getting them to agree to pay you an allowance at least for part of your accommodation and subsistence costs. Then you could at least claim income tax relief from HMRC on any expenses which you incur that your company doesn't pay you.

Finally you could follow the grievance procedure on the matter.

ohreally

slinkykev wrote: »

My argument is that it is not practical for me to drive these kind of distances on a daily basis b) health & safety reasons - im likely to fall asleep at the wheel driving these distances on a daily basis

http://www.opsi.gov.uk/SI/si1999/19993242.htm#3 reg 3 (1) (a) what does the RA highlight, given fatigue is highly likely.
Also sec 2 (1) of the health and safety at work act http://www.opsi.gov.uk/RevisedStatutes/Acts/ukpga/1974/cukpga_19740037_en_2#pt1-pb2-l1g2

Also relevent are daily rest periods in compliance with working time regs.

When i work away i travel down the day before on work time, book into an hotel and return in work time. All expenses are met including parking fees meals and a social allowance.

nearlyrich

Employers have a duty of care to their employees, managers sometimes hold the purse strings a little too tight to be reasonable, if it's a company with HR policies and sensible HR dept try speaking to them, the "boss" may well be breaking their rules by expecting you to do long commutes on top of a full day working.

PasturesNew

Claim the 40 p mileage for 2x200 = 400 = £160 ... and pay for a hotel yourself. Or aren't they even paying petrol?

anotherginger

PasturesNew wrote: »

Claim the 40 p mileage for 2x200 = 400 = £160 ... and pay for a hotel yourself. Or aren't they even paying petrol?

i was thinking this - claim for the mileage of the trip and pay for a cheap hotel.

ceridwen

I saw the point made re constructive dismissal - and well understand why it was made. It would be the first thought that would come to my mind actually.

I think it is worth looking into - but be very careful. The employer might have already looked into this and come to the conclusion that a Tribunal would find against you on this - and, from this, is deliberately instructing you to follow such unreasonable instructions precisely in the hope that you will fall into a trap and resign and they will have got away with not paying you anything.

I am wondering if you are actually in a redundancy situation and there actually is no alternative work your employer could give you - hence they have realised that they "should" be making you redundant really - but then decided to play it this way in the hope that you would resign and save them a redundancy payout.

Are there any suggestions you could make to your employer actually as to what other - more reasonable - work you could do instead?

jonnyd281

anotherginger wrote: »

i was thinking this - claim for the mileage of the trip and pay for a cheap hotel.

Two problems with this -
1. you only get 40p/mile for the first 10000 miles each year,
2. if you are caught it would be classed as gross misconduct, you would be commiting fraud by claiming for something you are not actually doing.

You really need to speak to your HR people about this.

jdturk

ohreally wrote: »

http://www.opsi.gov.uk/SI/si1999/19993242.htm#3 reg 3 (1) (a) what does the RA highlight, given fatigue is highly likely.
Also sec 2 (1) of the health and safety at work act http://www.opsi.gov.uk/RevisedStatutes/Acts/ukpga/1974/cukpga_19740037_en_2#pt1-pb2-l1g2

Also relevent are daily rest periods in compliance with working time regs.

When i work away i travel down the day before on work time, book into an hotel and return in work time. All expenses are met including parking fees meals and a social allowance.

Unless you entertain customers and that has to come out of this you have a very good deal!

ckerrd

I used to regularly work 12 hour days which would involve a couple of hours driving at each end.

How long have the company given you to drive to the temp place of work?
The should allow you time over and above the normal commuting time that you currently do.
They should also pay you a mileage allowance.

Does you company have any regulations about the length of day you are allowed to work?

If they "made" you travel on a daily basis for along period of time then they may well start to get into problems with your hours in relation to the working time regs.

Savvy_Sue

jonnyd281 wrote: »

2. if you are caught it would be classed as gross misconduct, you would be commiting fraud by claiming for something you are not actually doing.

You really need to speak to your HR people about this.

Possibly fraud, possibly a perfectly acceptable way to do it - you'd need to check. Where I work, you're expected to claim the cheapest reasonable option, but if you choose to travel a different way, that's fine. So if you could get a train for a sensible price, but you prefer to drive and that works out more expensive, you'd claim for a train fare.