To ask my new employer for clarification?

[Mw19]

I've got a new job account managing the Northern Territory. Some days I'll be out and about at visits and appointments but mostly I'll be working from home.

They've sent me a contract to sign which says my normal place of work is their London office but I was expecting the contract to reflect home working and my normal place of work to be my address? (I live in York).

I'm only expected to go to the London office twice a month (maximum four times a month).

Should I insist it is amended to reflect home working? Expenses wise I'm thinking that I may not be able to claim any travel expenses for travelling to the London office if my contract states that's where I work anyway? Plus they could turn around and say I need to work from the office all the time which I can't do.

Sounds like you need a field based contract where your place of work is at your home address. Otherwise you're correct technically you can't claim milage to London and they could call you in at any time.

Yes you should definitely ask for this to be amended to accurately reflect the working arrangements.

How was the post advertised? Did it specify home working? Have you been asked to complete a home working risk assessment? It may just be an administrative error…

I would get this clarified for a base address (home) and expected travel to London per month.

Yes, get it changed, so they can't insist you go in all the time. Ideally, your place of work should be home (in which case they ought to pay travel expenses to London), but knowing you can't be forced to go to London more often is probably a bigger issue than the travel expenses.
You can probably claim working-from-home expenses against your tax bill, but only if you are required to work from home.
Watch out if there is any "London weighting" element to your salary, which might be dependent on your place of work.

I wonder - if you scheduled your site visits for the day before/after a London trip, could you claim your travel expenses to get there from the office?

Yes I'd ask for it to be changed

Yes agree, ask for it to be changed.

Thanks all.

This is what the job spec says:

"You will support customers across Northern England, with the occasional requirement to stay overnight, and the remainder of your time will be spent working from home or in the office. You will be comfortable balancing a combination of travel and office-based work."

"Should I insist?"
How much do you want the job?

Doesn't mean it's a home contract. If they change it to a home contract they would need to pay you expenses to travel which they probably don't want to do.

But I'd still ask and see if option exists and what it would mean

Are there any grown ups there ?

The whole setup sounds a bit flaky. First off, if they want your place of work to be London, then travel expenses to client sites would use that as your base. So even if you popped to your next door neighbour for work, the expenses would be as if you had travelled from London.

That said the extract you posted doesn't guarantee anything.

They've replied saying that perhaps the contract should be updated to reflect home working and that they'll clarify with HR as to where they stand on that front.

In terms of travelling to their London office which I asked them to clarify - they've said that they expect i'll be required to attend the office a minimum of twice to maximum 4 times per month and that my travel expenses to the office won't be covered (customer visit expenses will be covered but I only cover the North so I wouldn't be able to tie the two visits in together).

York to London could cost me £200 per return ticket! This surely isn't standard?
I really want the job but not at a potential £800pm cost to me. The salary increase i'd be getting for taking the role would only cover half of that. I may as well stay put!

Sounds like they want their cake and to eat it. Minimal expenses when travelling in the north for much of the month, and not to pay your London expense when you are in.

I’d point that out to them and if they refuse to budge I’d decline the role in your position.

I was really excited for this so i'm feeling disappointed (and flabbergasted) to say the least. I want to be assertive and clear in my response that I need expenses to London to be covered in order to accept the role but I also really want the job so I need to be careful with my wording. Any suggestions on how I approach it firmly but fairly? Shall I point out how much a return ticket will cost me?

I work in HR and I would say it really depends on if you have been placed on a London based salary band. If this is the case there would be an expectation in most companies that you pay for your travel to work at the London office. If you have been placed on a regional salary band because of your current location then it would be normal for the company to pay for your travel.

I haven't been placed on a London based salary band. They're also advertising for the same role but in the midlands at the moment at the same salary.

Maybe point out that they’ll be saving money because you’ll be local to customers so they should be willing to pay for visits to London.

If you book far enough in advance tickets should be much cheaper.

That ad is unclear. If there’s only one office (London) it’s implied that travel to that office is required at your cost, but there’s room for argument.

Advance rail tickets are NOT cheaper at peak times.

It never crossed my mind that travel to the office would be required at my own cost. I have friends and ex colleagues in field sales who say it's very unusual for travel to head office not to be covered by the company. Especially when you're based so far away.

So not only will they require me to cover my own costs but i'll also be travelling to the office in my own time unpaid (unless I also pay to stay overnight!)

York to London isnt £200-

Advance rail tickets from York are cheaper at peak times. £66 from York to London on the 6.32 bought a month or so in advance. Back is cheaper.

Even a week in advance rail tickets are cheaper. As for the previous poster saying advance tickets arent cheaper at peak times, thats complete bollocks, next Wednesday arriving in London at 8am and leaving London at 7pm is £76 return, if you are under 30 then its £50 return with a railcard.

You might be better off trying to negotiate salary rather than getting the expences covered. Expenses will be a general policy, salary may or may not be. I think it's normal that if you have two normal places of work you don't get travel expenses between the two.

Buisness expenses are tax free. This describes what is considered a business expense re commuting.
www.gov.uk/guidance/ordinary-commuting-and-private-travel-490-chapter-3#ordinary-commuting
Although there is nothing to stop a company covering more, it shouldn't be expected.

But you absolutely need homework ing conditions in the contract. Because you cannot do the job permanently from the office.

I think the idea of asking for higher salary to compensate is worth a shot, worst they can say is no.

You need to know how much notice and flexibility you'll get for the London days, to minimise travel costs.

If you'll be able to book a few weeks in advance you might be able to get reasonably priced tickets but if they start to do things like tell you on Thursday to be in the office next Monday, it could get expensive.

But I've just looked at the LNER website and was surprised to see plenty of lower cost 'working day' tickets. It used to be that it was pretty much impossible to do that journey for anything less than full price (nearly £250) but maybe it's a reflection of lower demand post pandemic that people are meeting remotely instead, even now we're more or less back to normal.

But you need to weigh up the options and possibly ask for a higher salary to reflect average costs of travelling to London, especially if they increase in future if it gets harder to secure the cheaper tickets when you need them.

That's still a lot imo if I need to be there 4 times a month. The majority of the extra money I would be earning by taking the role would be spent on tickets. I was already travelling in my own time and now with this i'm unsure whether I want it unless I can negotiate the salary.