Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/32232
WORLD FENCE NEWS • JUNE 2011 • 29 1. Portal-to-portal travel. (Not in the sense of the original miners portal, but traveling to and from work) which is not compensable; 2. Travel between work sites, which generally is compensable; 3. Special one-day assignments, which are compensable with certain exceptions that I will discuss in a mo- ment, and 4. Overnight travel, which is part compensable and part non-compens- able, depending on circumstances. In this month’s column, we will cover the first two categories, then fol- low up with the remaining two in the July edition. Portal-to-portal travel Portal-to-portal travel consists of the time it takes an employee to report to work and to return home from work and is not considered part of the “whistle-to-whistle” workday hours; the travel to and from work portion is therefore not compensable. The ex- ception to this rule would be if the company has an established policy or contract to the contrary; then that pol- icy or contract would supercede and govern compensable hours. A notable exception to this rule would be if the employee’s travel time to and/or from work includes work re- lated duties, such as picking up tools, materials or instructions. I have found a good rule of thumb to be that com- pensable time begins “As soon as the employee begins a work related activ- ity and ends as soon as the employee ends all work related activities.” Remember that if your employee has to, for example, drop off a truck then return to the office to pick up his or her own vehicle before returning home, that employee’s time is com- pensable until the last work related duty is fulfilled. Again. the same is true for picking up or dropping off tools or even instructions prior to the beginning of the workday. Travel between sites When any employee, crew, yard or even office employee is required to travel from one site to another within the confines of the “whistle-to- whistle” time frame, all that time is also compensable. Similarly, if a crew completes a job and then travels back to the yard prior to leaving for the day, that travel time is compensable, however if the remote worksite is the established SECURITY FENCING INFORMATION RESOURCE WORLDFENCENEWS.COM principal location of work related ac- tivities for that work day, the employer is only responsible for the “whistle-to- whistle” time that the employee is at that work site, even though it is not the principal place of employment for that employee. In other words, an employee can be required to show up “at the job site” and the time spent getting to that job site is not compensable. However if the employee has to first stop at the shop, for whatever reason, the com- pensable work time begins as soon as that employee arrives at the first place of business activity, in this example, the shop. See you next month! Through his organization Profit Builders International (PBI), Tom Luby has developed the Roadmap to Success program, which offers valu- able business information necessary to successfully operate a fencing company. The Roadmap to Success is available on CD, along with his book, The Close, and The Roadmap to Success user manual. He has also conducted business seminars on the FENCETECH convention edu- cational programs. Contact him at 386-283-4884, info@profitbuilder.org or visit his web site located at www.profitbuilder.org. Sharelox TM multiple padlock access solutions email: sales@sharelox.com www.sharelox.com phone (970) 586-9477 Buy American, Be American™ u u u AAMA 2604 COMPLIANT W e are en vironmentally responsib le