Would your work pay for this? AIBU thinking they would?

[Quickthrowaway]

I’ve been told I need to go on a training course/conference. Really short notice. Full day 9am-4.30, paid for by work.

However....it is a 6 hour drive or a 4.30 hr train journey away. Meaning I need to be leaving around 2/3/4am in the morning and then the same on the way home.

They will not pay for a hotel the night before and it’s expected I will drive and claim back mileage. Should say it is a public sector job. AIBU to think they would pay for accommodation the night before?

The OP needs to travel the night before whether she's going on the train or driving.

If it's NHS, they will almost certainly have business expenses policies, environmentally friendly travel policies and driving safely at work policies, none of which the OPs managers instruction to drive there and back in a day will comply with.

If the OP can get an evening train the day before and book a specific train after the course, the cost might be cheaper than driving but not necessarily so, but she shouldn't be doing a minimum of a 6 hour drive (does that 6 hours include traffic delays and rest stops?) at each end of a full working day so she should travel the day before and get the train anyway and the manager should agree with this route.

We would get first class train travel the day before, and overnight hotel. Probably would be expected to get the train in the evening after the course (assuming there is one) but would get the time credit for that. If we took the train during normal working hours then we would be expected to work on the train. We'd also get time credit in the form of time back, for travel outside of normal work hours (but they cap that at 4 hours/day).

They really should pay for a hotel the night before, plus subsistence for meals.

I think if you are clear about the timings they will pay.

Very small business here on a tight budget. We would have a hotel the night before but probably not after as all of us tend to just want to get home! Hotel would be budget anyway and a £30 meal allowance, £10 brekkie and lunch.

I asked this morning via email and included all the timings.

No reply yet

NGO here. Our travel policy is employee safety as the priority; what you are being asked to do clearly isn’t safe. We’d only ask you to do that in one day if you were flying, tbh.

My husband's employer would (and has) pay for 2 nights and they put petrol on the company's card, and get an allowance of £100 for food.

Hope it gets sorted op. Good luck.

@Quickthrowaway I said in my post that was public sector - NHS to be exact and yes, hotel would be paid for. All our expenses and travel are done electronically.

Any joy?

@Quickthrowaway

Did you receive an answer?

God so sorry! Forgot about this thread.

Forget the hotel they wouldn’t even pay for the train! I refused to go and they’ve just left it at that

Did say I could possibly ask charitable funds to pay for the train warrant 🤦‍♀️

Wow that is harsh OP. Do they send people away on business trips regularly and if so how do they get them to go without covering their costs. That seems crazy. No way I would have gone either.

Doctors maybe .

Mine would. In fact they were due to do it last year, but my pregnancy suddenly became high risk and I wasn’t prepared to be at the opposite end of the country to my consultant.

I would just mention the liability in the event if an accident and see if they change their tune...

Good on you for refusing to go. That is really bad.

Your employer is being completely idiotic. You are quite right to refuse to go unless ALL costs are being met by the employer, including at a minimum, a night in a hotel, 2 if necessary.

Public sector has got rules about travelling and working away from normal work location and you should be able to access them without any problem.

I'm a nurse. My trust would pay for accommodation before and after and I'd be paid for my travelling time. What they are asking is not reasonable!

I work in an NHS hospital, and when I went on a study day my accommodation was paid for.

Doctors maybe

Nope, like I say we have an annual CPD budget and we pay for what we want out of that (when it’s gone, it’s gone, so no point staying at the Ritz because there won’t be money to cover later trips). But no stipulation about modes of transport or hotel/no hotel. They don’t generally “tell” us to attend specific courses though...

If it’s hospital business (travel to another site etc) they pay for either mileage or train travel.

They should pay I agree, did someone in finance just throw a tantrum because you asked last minute?

I would speak to HR about general policy here because I’m public sector and it specifically says that we should never drive while tired and we should get either a taxi or hotel after a long working day. It’s also stated that we also need to increase our car insurance to cover occasional business trips (not just commute).

I know you’ve made the right decision not to go but there’s a wider issue about unsafe working practices here.