The principles used to determine whether travel time is compensable time depend on the nature of the travel, according to Richard Lehr, general counsel for the Professional Lawn Care Association of America.
Here are the principles:
- Home-to-work travel – An employee who travels from home before the regular workday and returns to his/her home at the end of the workday is engaged in ordinary home-to-work travel, which is not work time.
- Home-to-work on a special one-day assignment in another city – An employee who regularly works at a fixed location in one city is given a special on-day assignment in another city and returns home the same day. The time spent traveling to and from the other city is work time. However, the employer may deduct the amount of time the employee would normally spend commuting to the regular work site.
- Travel that is all-in-a-day’s work – Time spent by an employee in travel as part of his/her principal activity, such as travel from job site to job site during the workday is work time and must be counted as hours worked.
- Travel away from home community – Travel that keeps en employee away from home overnight is travel away from home. Travel away from home is clearly working time when it cuts across the employee’s workday. The time is not only work time on regular working days during normal working hours, but also during corresponding hours on non-work days. The Department of Labor (DOL) does not consider as work time the time spent in travel away from home outside of regular working hours as a passenger on an airplane, train, boat, but or automobile.
- Driving time – Time that an employee spends driving an employer’s vehicle is work time. If an employee is directed by the employer to drive the employee’s vehicle to transport tools, supplies, equipment or other employees, the time is also considered as hours worked.
Failure to correctly pay for hours worked by an employee can create a substantial liability. Not only may an employee recover unpaid wages, he or she can also bring suit for liquidated damaged (an amount equal to unpaid wages) plus attorney fees. In addition, the DOL can assess a penalty of up to $1,000 per employee for repeated or willful violations of the act.
The author is Managing Editor of Lawn & Landscape magazine and can be reached at nwisniewski@lawnandlandscape.com.