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1. Ordinary Home to Work (29 C.F.R. § 785.35)
Generally, normal commuting travel from home to work is not work time and, therefore, does not have to be paid. According to the FLSA regulations, “an employee who travels from home before his regular work day and returns to his home at the end of the work day is engaged in ordinary home to work travel which is a normal incident of employment. This is true whether he works at a fixed location or at different job sites.”
2. Emergency Home to Work (29 C.F.R. § 785.36)
During emergency situations, travel from home to work is work time. For example, an employee who has already gone home after work subsequently gets called out at again that night due to a consumer emergency. All that travel time is working time that must be paid.
3. Special One-Day Assignment in Another City, Home to Work (29 C.F.R. § 785.37)
You must pay a non-exempt employee for all time spent traveling to a seminar, training session, or other work assignment that lasts for a day. You also must pay for all time spent at the seminar, training session, or working. The employee is considered to be on a special assignment performed for the employer’s benefit.
For example, if a non-exempt aide travels one hour to a training, attends the training for eight hours, and then drives home for one hour, s/he will be entitled to pay for the eight hours at the training and the two hours of travel time. However, you may deduct from the total working time the employee’s “normal” commute time and any meal period not spent performing work or in the training session.
4. Travel That’s All in a Day’s Work (29 C.F.R. § 785.38)
All time an employee spends traveling as part of his or her principal work activity, such as travel from job site to job site during the workday, must be paid as hours worked. For example, if an employee is required to report at your office first to receive instructions or pick up certain materials for work, the travel from the office to the assigned work site also counts as hours worked.
5. Overnight Travel Away from Home (29 C.F.R. § 785.39)
If a non-exempt employee travels to a training session or work assignment, traveling the day before the session or work actually begins, only the travel time that cuts across (overlaps) the employee’s regular workday must be paid. For example, if an LVN normally works from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m., and leaves for an out-of-town training session at 1 p.m. and arrives at 4 p.m., you are only required to pay for one hour of travel time.
Note that overnight travel time on non-working days is considered work time if conducted during the employee’s normal work hours. For example, if the same employee travels on a regular day off, perhaps Sunday, you must pay for any travel time between 6 a.m. and 2 p.m. Again, you may deduct normal meal periods from the travel time, as long as the employee does not perform work during the meal period.
The DOL has created some disparities in how the out-of-town travel is compensated. Employees traveling on the same day of the assignment are paid for all the time spent traveling. By contrast, employees traveling the day before the work assignment are paid only for the travel time that cuts across their normal workday.
6. Work Performed While Traveling (29 C.F.R. § 785.41)
Of course, travel time during nonworking hours may be considered compensable work time if the employee actually performs work while traveling.
7. Transportation Choices Matter (29 C.F.R. § 785.40)
The Department of Labor does not treat as compensable time spent traveling away from home outside regular working hours if the worker is a passenger on an airplane, train, boat, bus or in an automobile. Even more oddly, you can arrange for the employee to travel outside normal working time. Thus, a non-exempt employee whose regular shift is 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday, who is required to travel by bus on Sunday night in order to be at an out-of-town meeting on Monday morning, he/she does not have to be paid for travel time.
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