Meal allowance when working away

[Workingfornothing]

Can anyone please advise. I’ve looked but can’t make much sense. Is there a legal requirement for a company to provide you with meal expenses when working away? Currently my partner sometimes works away and sometimes works local. When he’s local he has breakfast at home, takes a packed lunch, and a hot drink in a flask and water/juice, then obviously has evening meal at home. When he works away his employer pays for his hotel, and £20 for an evening meal. That’s it. If the evening meal is under £20 he gets that amount back only. If it’s over £20 he only gets £20. Every time he works away he’s using his own money as he has to buy his meals and drinks (excluding £20) So it’s costing him, and other employees, to do their job. I just can’t see how this is fair. So, is there any legislation to say meals must be provided by the employer?

You’d be shocked at what is possible. Literally nothing here is an insurmountable issue.

The £20 is a bit low but you are missing the point of what other posters are saying - when he is working locally his work aren't covering the cost of his breakfast or lunch are they? He is paying for it, they aren't subsidising the food shop for him. When he is away he isn't eating food at home so there is a cost saving there. That cost saving of 3 home funded meals being put to paying for breakfast and lunch, plus £20 towards dinner

I can't see anywhere the OP has mentioned it being 6 days, have you just made that up to suit your narrative that you can't possible eat well without a fridge? Why would you make up 6 days worth of tuna sandwiches? Why wouldn't you have one loaf of bread and just open a tin everyday? You know fruit doesn't need refrigeration too so it's easy to get something healthy in there.

For all we know the OP's husband works just one overnight and is back the following evening. This could be a load of fuss over one extra breakfast and lunch meal.

Most people have offered much healthier alternatives but the OP has shot them down as not suitable for such a manual job so we're hardly going to suggest cereal and salads.

I'd be shocked? Can't be that obvious a solution then, can it.

Either way, doesn't sound great for employee engagement or productivity. The reason corporates have expense policies is because they want their employees working, not buttering baps.

I was replying to the poster who crowed about how easy it would be to make 6 tuna sandwiches for lunch.

I'd envisage a builder taking a French Stick, six pack of crisps, a bag of apples, a pack of cheese slices, a pack of ham, taking a jar of pickle out of his backpack along with a sandwich bag and a knife from inside an insulated lunchbox, making a cheese, ham and pickle stick (they tear open perfectly well), putting it in the bag, into his site bag with crisps and apple, putting the second half of the cheese & ham if not eaten all at once into said insulated box, filling up his Stanley flask with free coffee and leaving for a day on site. Maybe even including one of the flapjacks sold in literally every corner shop or stopping off at a Greggs' for a hot steak pie and a sausage roll first thing if he's too special for a roadkill special from one the vans that usually park up by large building projects.

You know, as though he were a grown up responsible for feeding himself instead of complaining it's not made for him by his girlfriend and convincing her that it's double the cost when he's not eating at home, even though he's getting twenty quid for an evening meal and just as likely having pizza for breakfast in any case.

How hard is it in the morning to open and drain a tin and stick it between two slices of bread?

I wonder how dadsnet is getting on with the ops husband posting his massive conundrum on there too.

That’s really low. Very hard to eat something healthy and sustaining for £20 with no cooking or prep facilities.

have him and his colleagues asked for an increase?

to avoid being out of pocket, could you tot up approx how many ££s worth of food he eats at home on an average day and then “add” that to the £20 he can claim back from his company? That way as long as he spends within that limit you know you’re not losing out by him being away?

Appreciate it’s difficult to cost up portions of food you’ve already bought at the supermarket but there’s lots of budgeting stuff online that can help work out £ per portion.

I don’t get any sort of allowance when I’m away so I’m pretty scrupulous about bringing my own stuff where I can, but it is difficult

We seem to be going round in circles.

It's not hard, but it's pretty sub-optimal.

I have done a bit of living without a fridge or large budget, so if it came to it, the main trick is to "overlap" meals so you use up the ingredients quickly, and then change to something else.

Stop thinkiing in terms of breakfast food. So get up in the morning, buy baguette(s), small pack of cold meat, tomatoes, bag of apples. Have a sandwich for breakfast with a coffee, and add porridge and an apple if you need more food. Tin of quick cook oats in the room and you can make your instant porridge cheaply.

Make sandwiches using the same cold meat, tomatoes, baguette for lunch. Flask of coffee from the hotel, couple more apples, crisps from a multipack.

Another day it's tuna, spring onion, bananas, wholemeal bread. The fruit lasts a couple of days anyway, and the bread too. So next day you're just buying chicken and cucumber.

Your food costs are coming in at about £4-£7 before the £20 on dinner, which is probably not much more than they would at home? You just use your protein and salad ingredients more intensively, plan ahead and pack the equipment, and vary your evening meal. Oats, mustard, peanut butter, dried fruit and nuts are good staples to have in the room. It's very doable. Not to say it should be necessary, but you can keep the costs down.

Why is it sub-optimal? How is it any different to what he would have to prepare at home?

Add an apple, a banana, a twix and a packet of crisps and it's just a regular pack up. I've no idea why this is a difficult concept.

I know really lucky my old place was £15 evening meals and then breakfast must be booked as part of hotel. They did the well you pay for lunch in the office so we don’t pay lunch. My new place is more even though it’s in your role you may need to work away….we are inconveniencing your personal life so you shouldn’t be worse off. Have the same with hotels, we shouldn’t book somewhere just because it’s cheapest ie a travelodge as we are away from our comforts so it should be reasonable. But it’s more based on our judgement really I will try and book something under £150 max a night I don’t go crazy at all as you will loose the privilege

Yeah ours is €80 per meal. Last time I went on a work trip, I forgot my pyjamas, so I had to buy some. My work paid for them too.🤣

It’s not a lot but with a bit of planning it’s doable and lots of good ideas from PPs.

I’m curious to know what the OP’s DH usually has for breakfast and lunch. Assuming that lunch is a sandwich, crisps, cake, fruit etc. he can replicate it easily without spending any more than he would at home. French stick, wraps, ham, cheese, hard boiled eggs, tinned mackerel, bag of salad, tub of tuna mayo are all easy enough and just need him to maybe bring a knife and some Tupperware in his bag. Breakfast could be porridge pots, bread, pain au chocolate, bacon roll picked up on the way to site. If he normally has a fry up at home then he has a few pounds to spend on a takeaway breakfast of some sort. Cup a Soup, Pasta pots, Pot noodles could all be taken to site if there’s hot water. If his evening meal comes to £15 can he make up the difference in crisps, pudding that he can take away, even ask for a sandwich for the next day.

If he’s away all week then presumably that’s the equivalent of £5-10 a day that you’re not spending on meals at home for him so shouldn’t be any worse off if he’s spending it in the local Tesco Express.

Is he in a union? Or looking for a better job?

That's why this thread is utterly fascinating to me. We seem to be divided into those who think it's perfectly ok to ask an employee to make do in the same way they might if trying to squeeze a personal trip into a tight budget, and those who think business travel should almost over compensate the traveller for the inconvenience (I fall into the latter group).

I'd have to be pretty starving before I'd think it was ok to to eat a flapjack or a pain au chocolat for breakfast. Yes I can choose a banana and apple from the supermarket for health but that's not my usual choice either. I want a couple of slices of toast with butter or a fresh fruit salad like I generally have or else something more appealing, not less. I'm already sleeping in a strange bed, away from my family and home comforts. My employer has a choice to make me feel relaxed and looked after, or short changed and a bit physically grim from having had to shovel down any old food I can afford to get calories in. Tbh it's probably the difference of £10-15 a day with a tight policy and I'd say it's worth spending if you want employees to hang around. I'd find excuses not to travel if an employer was too tight to buy me a sandwich for lunch when I'm away.

I think the main problem, bar the amount being low, is that it can only be spent on one meal rather than spread across the day. Is there any way a group of colleagues can get together and challenge this? It wouldn't cost the company any more than at present.

It’s down to company policy. The company policy is crap.

Wow! I thought my current company was stingy and we get up to £10 reclaimable for breakfast and also £10 for lunch and £20 for dinner. Dinner might be higher if London.
Before kids (2000s) so different job, hotels were always booked with breakfast included. We’d get a meal voucher if on a company site or if no food provided by the customer you could claim up to £6 for lunch. Evening meal was limit of £30 and could include alcohol.

I mean it's not high end but things like peanut butter don't need refrigeration, neither does bread I would also keep pre-sliced hard cheese in a cool room. ( if his hotel room has a bathroom the sink filled with water could keep sealed food cool overnight. Hummous would also be ok out of the fridge overnight I would think, crackers, cherry tomatoes. There are also cous cous sachets which just need hot water and I often buy those gourmet sachets, with some pre cubed feta that would make a nice lunch.

I think he should vote with his feet and work elsewhere. Are they paying his travel costs?

MPs get way more expenses.

I get a £5 lunch allowance when working away from my base office. But not allowed to collect points. But many places have a reduced price if you use your points and if you don’t use your points card then it takes you over the limit.

I think lots of people haven’t understood what you are saying. His company are tight arsed gits for not booking overnight accommodation with breakfast. It’s not fun eating out of a suitcase and not particularly healthy as you can’t always take salad / sandwiches as they won’t last until the next day.

is there anyway the team could join a union and use collective power to get a change out in place.

Exactly this!

People have already explained to the OP there's no legal basis for a challenge, they've asked if he's in a union, they've asked if people would group together and ask management to change the policy. His choice is either hope management change, spend his own money on food, sort out a packed lunch or just don't eat.

People suggesting various meals he can have haven't said it's the best option in the world but stamping feet and wanting toast and their usual fresh fruit salad won't solve anything.