Travel / Work time

ohreally

Can you get a corporate credit card or have you employer make the booking.

Personally I'd be traveling on their time/ dollar and if it became a bone of contention then I'd look to move onward and upwards.

ReadingTim

On an occasional basis, it is entirely legal due to the wording in your contract which you quote. There are practical issues relating to the cap on travel expenses, if you genuinely can't get a ticket for less than the limit. Furthermore, if the only ticket entails travel on a Sunday night, I would suggest the company should pay for the hotel. If they don't, or expect you to pay for the difference re. the train fare, I think it's a legitimate reason to refuse to go. However, this may be career limiting one way or another - only you can decide whether this is a fight which you wish to pick.

Personally, I would drop the formal "time off in lieu/ is this legal" !!!!, but if things were a little slow ie no meetings, deadlines etc, then maybe come in a little later of a morning, leave a little early on a Friday afternoon, take the full lunch hour out of the office etc - basically if they want you to extra when things are busy, then realise that you might do less when things are quiet.

However, if regular offsite client work comes the rule, rather than the exception, then you should seek to ensure this is reflected in your contract. Also, familiarise yourself with the company's expenses policy and ensure you're claiming for everything you're entitled to claim for - within reason. You can't expect to be living better off the company's money than your own, but can't be expected to subsidise them either!

gettingready

ReadingTim wrote: »

if the only ticket entails travel on a Sunday night, I would suggest the company should pay for the hotel.

That should be given.

The issue is the OPs TIME wasted on extra travelling.

I was once contracting in a company that required me to be at client's site at 8am on Monday morning. Tricky bit was that the client was abroad and the only way for me to be there on Monday at 8 was to travel Saturday afternoon (limited flights to that particular place).

Also there was no flight back till Tuesday morning.

So.... I billed them for my time from the moment I left home on Saturday to get to the airport till Tuesday evening when I got back.

Used company card to pay for the hotel, transfers to/from airport at both ends, food etc.

Next time they booked me for client in a place that was not easy to get to - they checked all the flights connection. Sorted.

SandC

I am a bit confused about your travel timings though OP. I can't see travel time via flight being taken down to just an hour - you have to get to the airport and get to the client site at either end. You still have to leave enough time for security etc. Trains do start at 6am ish so you wouldn't be far off a 9am start.

It depends on the location of the premises you are visiting of course. As I said before though, salary level would be a biggie for me in this, in whether it would be appropriate to expect time off in lieu for this level of 'overtime' if that's what you want to call it.

FBaby

when you say 2 or 3 days a week, how long would this be for and are these three separate days in the week?

When you say it would take you 5 hours, is that from your home or place or work?

It would be totally unreasonable for them to expect you to do an extra 8 hours or more a day travel in addition to your working hours 3 times a week.

I would have a non aggressive/non defensive discussion with your boss and failing coming to a reasonable arrangement, look for another job.

Scorpio33

If it was me? I'd insist that if there is such a cap on expenses, that the company pay for the travel time, as you are struggling to keep your travelling costs under such a cap.

I'd also talk to my direct boss about the travel time eating into my own time. If they are not willing to budge, I would look for a new role where I feel I am respected.

I understand that companies need to make money and some jobs require travelling in your own time, but this is taking the !!!! in my opinion.

Legally, I doubt there is much you can do, so I suspect the only course of action is to look for a new job...

SandC

"Work is asking that I travel up on a Sunday or super early on the Monday to be at the clients office for 10am. (London to Manchester). I've stated that the travel time alone is approximately 4 hours, both eating into my personal time (Sunday) and my return journey (Tuesday or Wednesday) and that I want this back in lieu."

One round trip per 2-3 days of work.

gettingready

SandC wrote: »

One round trip per 2-3 days of work.

Time away from home living from a suitcase

graymic

To give you all an update.

Seems they have conceded on the original itinerary they suggested.

I will be arriving on the day "however soon I can make it". After comparing arrival times on client sites with other colleagues on other projects (who have stayed for longer stints) - they all typically arrive around midday. So I will be aiming to arrive around those same hours (Midday).

I went straight to the CFO regarding expenses issue and now he's signed off on a hotel stay / transfer to/from trainstation. But has said there is a limit on the meals (Which is totally fair enough). They did push back on flights not being apart of their policy, so I let that one slip.

Obviously now that I'm travelling very much within working hours, with a little over my usual commute I'm going to let the "days in lieu" part slip as well. But they have agreed to not send me on business trips on such short notice in future.

So I guess all is well that ends well, thank you very much everyone for your insight and opinions on this!

SandC

gettingready wrote: »

Time away from home living from a suitcase

Yes of course but a couple of people thought it was a daily commute back and forth.