Time in lieu for travelling to work

[Snyder86]

Maybe someone can provide with some help or guidance.

I work for an online company where everyone works from home. Every couple of months the company does a company wide "get together" where they rent out a large accommodation and we are all expected to travel to this location and work together usually for 2/3 days.

The travel itself is reimbursed for mileage and any expenses. However travel time is not. We have a work meeting coming up in a couple of weeks and the location has been set at a whopping 6 hour drive from my home. After alot of persuasion the company has agreed to pay for 1 nights accommodation on the Sunday night so I can travel down on the Sunday afternoon. Instead of having to wake up at 2am to travel 6 hours in order to be onsite to work at 8am. However when we finish work on Wednesday 5pm. I'm expected to drive home for 6 hours after a full day work then be available to start the next day at 8am.

In my work contract it does state something along the lines of "you must be flexible as from time to time, you may be required to work reasonable additional hours for the proper and effective performance of your duties."

I think it is under this clause that they are saying that travel time is not reimbursable. However something about this seems inaccurate. All employees work from home, this isn't a choice. It's how the company runs, we don't have a work office as everything is based online. So my home is my fixed place of work. Surely travel to a compulsory meeting, if the mileage and expenses are covered than the travel time to and from the location should also be covered? I appreciate that in some contracts it says something along the lines of "additional work is not paid" when you are a salaried employee. However you can't be expected to work for free so in these instances you are given time back in lieu which is what I would have thought to be appropriate in my circumstances however I am unable to find any information to either support or dispute this.
It's a shot in the dark but maybe someone here has more of an idea as to whether I am out of line to ask for the 12 hours in total I will be driving to be given back in lieu.
Thanks in advance

6 hours travel in your own time and sacrificing your Sunday evening and Weds night would be expected in some roles/salaries. I've done the Sunday travel thing but have been given some flexibility on the return day.

How far away is the course? If all travel is expensed, can you go by train/fly? Taxi to and from the airport/station at each end? 6 hours' drive could be +400 miles or a couple of hundred but city to city connections.

I wouldn't expect to be paid travel time but would certainly expect them to facilitate as short a journey as possible/TOIL on the day after.

Nowhere I have worked would reimburse you for travel time under these circumstances

Luckily you don't have to travel to work every day.

You don't get time in lieu for travel. I've travelled up and down the country and beyond. If you are actually working (not travelling) at the weekend when your contract states Monday to Friday then you could very fairly argue you are entitled.

I don’t think you really have a chance here.

I'd just smile and agree to whatever and then unfortunately test positive for covid.

Not sure you’ll have much luck asking to be paid for travel time, but I thought under working time regulations you had to have 11 hours rest time between shifts. As far as I’m aware, travel time to a place of work is included in this if it isn’t to a fixed place of work. So perhaps you’ll be allowed to start work a bit later the next day.

I've never been reimbursed for time travelling, 50/50 whether I get reimbursed for expenses. Once had to "persuade" the boss that if he wanted me to fly to America that he'd have to buy the ticket for me rather than me pay and claim it back. But I didn't get the nine hours each way back as time in lieu.

If they’re asking you to go there it’s work. There may be a reasonable home to office deduction but you have no usual home to office travel. They should pay you.

I assume that you are a salaried employee and not paid by the hour? If you are then I wouldn't expect to get paid for your time. As others have said, it's waht's expected.

My husband has a job like that and in the past he had to travel and stay away with the job. He gets paid a salary that reflects inconveniences like that.

I think that is an unreasonable amount of time to travel then start work again
I would ask to see where/why they think it's OK. Let them show you rather than you do the donkey work

Agree with the PPs - I wouldnt get that time back in lieu and I wouldnt expect any salaried role to either

Never been reimbursed for travelling time either - I’m fairly senior and it’s just one of the things you just suck up. I don’t get overtime for anything I do.

The only time I’d expect somebody to be paid was if the travel time took them under NMW or their contract allowed for it.

If you expect travel time why aren't you expecting to be paid for all the hours you're away from home?

You're not entitled to be reimbursed for the travel time. It's the nature of the job and you signed up to this agreement when you started.

I'm really surprised at the response here. At my company that time would be covered by the business, as toil rather than overtime but still, it would be on the companies time. If I was feeling generous I might just take the day after off rather than claim back the full 12 hrs but I wouldn't just suck it up, especially losing most of a Sunday.

I wouldn't get reimbursed for this in my job. I've travelled to Germany for a night before, got back on an evening flight, got home late and been in work the next morning - it's expected as part of my salaried role that sometimes I'll do that.

@mumofmunchkin

I wouldn't get reimbursed for this in my job. I've travelled to Germany for a night before, got back on an evening flight, got home late and been in work the next morning - it's expected as part of my salaried role that sometimes I'll do that.

Just to add though, they are reasonable, and if you rocked up an hour late the next morning after a trip like that no one would blink.

Still less commuting than many do over a long period. Yabu

@SquigglePigs

I'm really surprised at the response here. At my company that time would be covered by the business, as toil rather than overtime but still, it would be on the companies time. If I was feeling generous I might just take the day after off rather than claim back the full 12 hrs but I wouldn't just suck it up, especially losing most of a Sunday.

But what would you expect to get toil for? If the travelling time then why not also the Monday and Tuesday nights?

In my company this would be handled tacitly. For a 6 hour trip you'd come in an hour or two late the next day but fudge your timesheet as if you'd started normal time. This is what line managers told people to do because the timesheet system was a nightnare. But if course they would only say so verbally, not in writing.

It's a pain when work eats into the weekend. The question is how often. Once in a blue moon you just put up with it. If it becomes frequent, that's different.

@Geamhradh

Luckily you don't have to travel to work every day.

Nobody would be crazy enough to take a job with a 6-hour each way commute, so hardly relevant...

I’d get that time back in lieu. But then I work for a lovely company that values and tries to retain its employees. It is a highly-skilled sector though so they need to incentivise us to stay.

As an academic presenting at international conferences we were automatically allowed time off in lieu before and after as "packing and preparation" and "travel" time. Less so for domestic travel.

I once flew back from Nepal with a young woman who had travelled onvards from China. The flight from Kathmandu alone was 11 hours and she would have been travelling 24 solid hours by the time we landed. We did not de-plane until 10pm and she expected to go into work the next day. When I urged her to take the day off she said she was quite new in the role and did not like to "make a fuss". I said well all the more important to begin as you mean to go on and not let your employer treat you like a door mat. Get your parent/partner to ring the company next day and tell them you are jet lagged and will be back at work on xx.

If you dont want to attend just be diplomatically ill. But dont mention travel time if you are going to do that.

I work from home and pre-COVID would have to travel to the annual conference. Usually would involve a short flight and airport transfers. I always charged for travel time. Though I am classed as a contractor..

It's sadly not unusual in some jobs for this kind of travel demand. I don't agree with it but think you'll struggle changing their minds. I changed jobs instead.