Virus work flight cancelled that I paid to upgrade - should work pay my flight costs?

Westin

I have come across a few businesses now making these policy changes with the reasons given by Ballard.  I do wonder what expert advice the company has taken to reach such a decision.  High risk travel areas - Yes, but a blanket ban seems at the moment excessive. Will they ban employees coming to work on U.K. public transport for similar concerns of contact and transmission, or those who have been in social contact with others at Tesco while grocery shopping?   The travel industry is taking a beating already.

Ballard

unforeseen said:

Imagine the mayhem if every other business took such an over the top stance? 
I assume that any travel within the UK is banned as well in case you have to travel through an area where some by has been diagnosed with it? 

unforeseen said:

Imagine the mayhem if every other business took such an over the top stance? 
I assume that any travel within the UK is banned as well in case you have to travel through an area where some by has been diagnosed with it? 

Other than commuting there’s very little domestic travel with my company. Most of the international travel is to build contacts and is therefore not urgent so can be put on hold. Indeed, most of it is to the developing world where sanitation can be less than perfect. 

Imagine if 40% of the workforce went sick because everyone ignored the small but real threat that this virus carries. 

Ballard

Westin said:

I have come across a few businesses now making these policy changes with the reasons given by Ballard.  I do wonder what expert advice the company has taken to reach such a decision.  High risk travel areas - Yes, but a blanket ban seems at the moment excessive. Will they ban employees coming to work on U.K. public transport for similar concerns of contact and transmission, or those who have been in social contact with others at Tesco while grocery shopping?   The travel industry is taking a beating already.

The difference between travelling for business and travelling to your business is pretty clear. It is a necessity to travel to the office daily but travelling to see customers is, for my company at least, a nicety. I don't personally have any need to travel for work but those who do travel do so to have a face to face meeting. These are nice but in the present climate they're far from necessary. I stress that the chances of getting infected are small but when there's no NEED to travel why would you?

Our raison d'etre is not to keep the travel industry afloat. 

aroominyork

MCJJ999 said:

Thanks all, they cancelled because of fear of the virus. I also see both sides but it was a 10 hour flight and I have back issues, so help with the gruelling schedule, wanted to arrive ready to start full on.  Knowing my employer, they won’t pay anything, but wanted impartial views. 

For the future: one of my team has back problems so I got him to provide a doctor's letter and I now authorise premium economy when he takes long flights. Have you discussed that with your boss?

silvercar

tacpot12 said:

This sort of issue is very difficult for the business to deal with because the expense isn't tax deductible as it was never a necessary expense of the business. And most finance departments aren't set up to pay expenses that aren't tax deductible, so expect a bit of battle get the employer to pay anything. 

The upgrade was never  going to benefit anyone other than the OP, but the employer did facilitate the employee spending their money in this way by allowing the employee to buy the upgrade through their travel agent and deducting the money from payroll, so i think the employer should help compensate the OP to some degree.

Having an employee taken a more comfortable journey, means they are more refreshed and able to perform well in their work over the coming days, so it benefits both the employee and employer. As the employee already has back issues, reducing the risk of a deterioration reduces the risk of the employee needing time off in the future.

Dr_Crypto

A colleague was due to fly out for a medical conference in the states. The conference has been cancelled because of coronavirus! Seems an over reaction to me but I can understand not wanting to run a conference where one infected attendee could take out hundreds of doctors internationally. 

Aylesbury_Duck

After seeing what's happening in Italy, a country not hugely dissimilar to the UK, I fail to see how measures such as those listed above are an overreaction.  International business travel and conferences are simply not essential.  Many medical experts are saying that the UK's response is far too slow and too reactive.  I'm afraid I believe that we will have similar restrictions as those imposed by Italy in a few weeks' time or sooner. 

MCJJ999

aroominyork said:

MCJJ999 said:

Thanks all, they cancelled because of fear of the virus. I also see both sides but it was a 10 hour flight and I have back issues, so help with the gruelling schedule, wanted to arrive ready to start full on.  Knowing my employer, they won’t pay anything, but wanted impartial views. 

For the future: one of my team has back problems so I got him to provide a doctor's letter and I now authorise premium economy when he takes long flights. Have you discussed that with your boss?

Thank you, shame you don’t work for my company.  My company would fly me cargo if they could. And they won’t refund me, even though I was happy to fly

Doshwaster

Dr_Crypto said:

A colleague was due to fly out for a medical conference in the states. The conference has been cancelled because of coronavirus! Seems an over reaction to me but I can understand not wanting to run a conference where one infected attendee could take out hundreds of doctors internationally. 

I don't know if it is the same meeting but there was supposed to be a huge medical conference in Orlando this week with over 40,000 people which was cancelled a few days ago when the Florida government declared a state of emergency. Having that many healthcare professionals in one place clearly wasn't a good idea.

Some may think it's an overreaction but conferences and exhibitions are being cancelled worldwide with companies imposing travel bans - and some refusing to accept visitors onsite. Businesses don't make these decisions lightly - our entire marketing plan for the year has been ripped-up and re-written in the last week - but it's all about risk management. 

djdave

Re the bad back: your employer has a duty of care to you and must make reasonable adjustments for your health and safety. However, you've chosen to upgrade yourself, rather than do this through your employer, so I can't see how you'd be entitled to anything. In future, I'd insist that the employer make suitable arrangements for your health or refuse to travel. I can understand that would be confrontational and you might not want to risk the consequences, but you need to look after your long-term health. Either that or ensure your travel insurance is up to the job, bearing in mind most policies only cover personal (not business) travel as standard.