To ask work to pay for Hotel

[tealcoat]

I live in the South West but a portion of our business is London based. Work are sending me on a training course which starts at 9am in London.

‘Standard practice’ is for people going to London is to catch a 5am train and so go there and back in a day. People travelling like this in the business isn’t too uncommon though wasn’t part of my job description. I’m very much based in the South West overall.

I have a number of chronic health conditions that work are aware of though rarely impact my performance, eg. I still work overtime etc. I mask it all very well. But I find waking up very early very difficult, partly because of medication I take daily when I go to sleep. I would feel quite unwell during the day and not be able to focus (on the training course that they’re paying for).

Work have said that they won’t pay for a hotel for me to travel to London the night before.

AIBU to challenge this? I think they forget that I have health difficulties and I really don’t think I should have to pay for a hotel out of my own pocket.

Demand a reasonable adjustment if they fail to provide it don't go, if they sack you take action they have as legal obligation to make reasonable adjustments if you have a disability that warrants it.

Definitely challenge it, not in front of others if you can help it though. Come at it from the heath angle as otherwise they will say no as it sets a precedent etc.
Don’t do as a PP said and bill a nice dinner to them! They may refuse to pay. You’re not owed TOIL for an overnight unless it’s in your company policy/contract. Especially as this would be to help you and not the company really.

Well why shouldn’t it be the ‘norm’ on occasions where it saves the company money? If you’re prepared to give up your Sunday for work travel, then why not?

No company should have a one size fits all policy - impracticable

The travel wouldn’t even be on Sunday, I’d be travelling after work on a week night 😏

Hotels in London on a Sunday night are cheap as chips compared to mid week.

Do the sums of a peak train against off peak and hotel and I reckon they will be very similar

Also point out what would happen re the training course if you got delayed and missed some of whilst stuck on a train.

A one off training course can hardly be seen as setting a precedent for this sort of travel

I'd definitely push the reasonable adjustment angle. To be honest, I could not get on a train at 5 am and function at work with the medication I'm on either .

Ah cross post with it not being a Sunday you are travelling...

Mid week travel and hotel could be expensive. Still push for it though

I don’t think a 5 am train is a reasonable request

The ‘setting precedent’ argument is lazy, it’s just less hassle for them to have blanket policy than to look at it case by case by request

The law for disability specifically says they shouldn't treat everyone the same, as that is not equality.

To the person saying they may consider her unable to role - are you seriously saying someone able to do their role but struggling with one thing that happens occasionally (training) due to her disability should be let go?

I would definitely ask again in writing (always keep a paper trail in these situations!) and use the term reasonable adjustments as suggested above due to your health condition to remind them. If they again say they can't treat you differently I would point out the Equality Act says the opposite - depending how much you want to push it.

@GlitterNails thankyou! I didn’t know that detail of the equality act - that the same rule for everyone isn’t equal.

I was hoping to just call my manager to one side and have a chat, she’s normally very reasonable. Maybe I’ll follow it up with an email just so there’s a paper trail 👍🏻

Not the 5.24 from Swindon? That’s a brutal train. I did it a couple of times for work. Factoring in getting to the bloody station (about 40mins. To be fair... less at half past bloody middle of the night) plus getting ready.... it was pretty much not worth going to bed for.

I wouldnt do it, and i dont have any meducal issues.
Work wanted me to do a training course, and all the hotels were out of budget. I was asked to just leave very early instead, so i refused to do the training.
Funnily enough they managed to find the money to cover the hotel.

*medical

That’s really tight of your company. I travel a lot in the North of Scotland and early meetings say in Inverness always necessitate a hotel stay the night before, paid for by the company. Dinner (no alcohol) and breakfast are also paid for.
Training courses in London get all our travel (train or flights) paid, plus accommodation. There are caps obviously - can’t go swanning about in first class or staying in 5 star hotels - but that’s fair enough.

I have asked for overnight accommodation close to training venues, and also for taxi fares rather than underground travel across London.

This has always been accommodated as reasonable adjustment for my disability. Mine’s a hidden one, mobility related, and not something that affects my day to day, but has a big impact on what I can manage when travelling or at conferences.

If an employer refused this I would certainly challenge it as disability discrimination.

I was expected to drive from Sunderland to Doncaster for a training course, arriving at 9am. I refused and work paid for me to stay in the same hotel as where the course was being run.

I've just had a look at ACAS, for what they say about reasonable adjustments. Take a look here.

People who deal with events and transport in big companies can be terribly unrealistic. I once worked for a company that occasionally had firm-wide events at the head office in Yorkshire. They were great ones for planning on 9.30 a.m. starts on the footing that it wouldn't be problem for people in the London area because they could get the 7 a.m. train from King's Cross. When we pointed out that actually none of us lived next door to King's Cross and many lived in areas where there were no early trains that would get us to King's Cross by 7, they seemed totally bewildered. They became much more receptive to a later start when we said we'd all have to get taxis to be sure of catching the train.