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In the US, I worked for a consulting group in the bay area (Fremont). There was a big discussion about whether or not we were on the clock while driving to clie
by furyg3 11y ago
In the US, I worked for a consulting group in the bay area (Fremont). There was a big discussion about whether or not we were on the clock while driving to client sites, because some people wanted to live in Tracy and other people closer to the office, and the client sites were all over the place. So how to calculate this?
One way to do it was just to say you have to show up to the the Fremont office before going anywhere ('fixed office'), but this can be wasteful for everyone, since the client site can be in the opposite direction of the office. The final agreement was that the time it would have taken you to get to/from the office was your own time, and from then on you're on the clock and paid.
So if you live next to the office and get sent somewhere, your whole commute time to that place is paid. If you want to live in Tracy and drive an hour into work, that's ok, but your commute to the client site is only paid if it's longer than an hour or so. If you had to go to two client sites in a single day, the time between the client sites was always paid.
Nobody really had any idea if this was legal or not, but all of the consultants agreed it was very fair.
- brixon 11y agoThat sounds very reasonable. That leaves the power in the hands of the employee and makes it very simple for the employer.
- alistairSH 11y agoMy wife's current employer handles it this way. And it does seem like a fair compromise for cases of occasional semi-local travel (in her case, a remote office that's 50 miles from home and visited monthly, vs. her usual 12 mile commute). Her previous employer didn't count any commuting to client sites as "on the clock". One of many reasons she left. Granted, this was a Beltway Bandit and all work was at client sites, but as contracts changed, her commute changed dramatically (not just within the city, but as much as 2 hours on the Interstate).
- itsdevlin 11y agoIIRC this is how the IRS recommends milage expenses are to be treated. The delta of your normal commute = work.
- unfamiliar 11y agoSounds like the employees got screwed over. Why not just pay everyone for all the driving hours they did? Then if you happen to live next to the client you don't get paid for driving you didn't do, and you can get more actual work done too.