To think I shouldn’t have to make the time back?

[losingpassionforlife]

Sometimes I have to work in a different office location and it can take 3 hours to get there. I usually leave early (I’m still getting home for 7pm) and this is what my manager does to.

Then today she’s casually dropped it in about me making up the time for leaving early. I think it’s a big ask to do a 6 hour round travel in a day and to make up a further two hours. Aibu?

Well that’s unreasonable. My entire day would be

Train at 5:30
Arrive at office for 8:30ish
Leave at 5pm
Train at 5:30 (and that’s just a guess it could be later)
Arrive at home station 8:30
Home for 9pm

I think at my old workplace the threshold for claiming back as travel expenses was 15 miles or more, rather than time taken to travel. Or exception such as courses.

As others have said ....what does your contract say?

I don't think that's what the PP you quoted was suggesting though. I understood that to mean that travel to and from your office doesn't count as work but travel during the working day does.

Anyway, do you have a copy of your contract? Does it say you are based at a particular office?

If, for example, you usually work in London and you commute in from Reading which takes 1 hour, but occasionally you have to go to the Manchester office which takes 3 hours, then it would be unreasonable to expect you to do 9-6 in the Manchester office with a 3 hour commute either side of that and not claim any time back.

So on the basis that your usual commute is 1 hour each way, but when you go to Manchester it is 3 hours each way I would say you should either be getting to Manchester no earlier than 11 and leaving no later than 4 (so 4 out of the 6 hours' travel time would count as work time), or you should be getting 4 hours' paid overtime or claiming 4 hours' TOIL.

Nobody can give you a proper response until you clarify what’s in your contract…

As others have said it will all depend on your contract. If you’re contracted to work in one place and they’re sending you elsewhere then travel should be accommodated in work time. If your contract says multiple locations then that’s in your time.

If it is not your usual base/ office, then travel time is included in work time. There have been numerous legal rulings on this. It is likely that you are owed time back for the travel, not the other way around.

Not the case if you are at a location that is not your contracted main base.

It's unreasonable if there is an agreement (in your contract or in another format) that

• your "base" office is one closer to you home
• if you were led (deliberately or accidently) to believe that most/all of the time you would be working out of a location closer to your home.

If however either -

• you were aware that the job would require working at different locations
• you don't have a specified base office and have never asked about one

then it is totally reasonable. You knew the hours and how far away the office was when you took the job. Why take it if you didn't want to have a long, unpaid commute?

It's not unreasonable if you've signed a contract that says that that's what you have to do. It is, if its another office that you can travel to during work time. So yet again, as many people have now asked:

"What does your contract say about your place of work?"