World Fence News

WORLD FENCE NEWS • JULY 2018 • 31 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-compensa- ble, depending on circumstances. Portal-to-portal travel Portal-to-portal travel consists of the time it takes an employee to re- port to work and to return home from work and is not considered part of the "whistle-to-whistle" workday hours; and the travel to and from work por- tion is therefore not compensable. The exception to this rule would be if the company has an established policy or contract to the contrary and then that policy or contract would supersede 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 compensable time begins as soon as the employee begins a work related activity 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. 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 crew, yard or even of- fice 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 com- pensable. Similarly, if a crew completes a job and then travels back to the yard prior to leaving for the day, that trav- el time is compensable. However, if the remote worksite is the established principal location of work related ac- tivities for that work day, the employ- er is only responsible for the "whis- tle-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 rea- son, the compensable work time be- gins as soon as that employee arrives at the first place of business activity, in this example, the shop. One-day special assignments The one-day special assignment travel category typically applies when an employer requires an employee who typically works at a fixed loca- tion to report for a day or more to an alternate work site which is more than 30 miles (48 km) from his/her prima- ry work location. In this case, that travel time is compensable. There are exceptions, however. Consider the following scenario: A fencing contractor in Miami Beach employs six two-man crews. The regular working hours are from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. The general manager gives three of these crews a one-day assignment to install a vinyl privacy fence at Dis- ney World in Orlando. The GM gives the crews instruc- tions to leave in a company truck from the shop in Miami for Orlando at 6 a.m. The crews drive to Orlando and finish the job at 2 p.m., taking the usu- al 30-minute lunch break. Then the three crews return to Miami and arrive back at the shop at 6 p.m. I know, driving more than three hours each way for a two hour job is a bit absurd, but remember this is just an example. All the employees' time is com- pensable from 6 a.m. until 6 p.m., with the exception of the 30-minute lunch break, which is not compensable. Also consider this – in some states any time over 8 hours of work in any given work day must be compensable at time-and-a-half (Florida, New York and California, for example), while in other states only time after 40 hours in any given work week is compensable at time-and-a-half. Be careful here and check the laws in your state to be sure. Another thing to remember, if you instruct one of the crew members and they are required to pick up one or more employees, that employee's time would be compensable from the minute he or she picked up the first employee until the time they dropped off the last employee at the end of the work day – this is considered a work related activitiy. continued on page 66 U LT R U M ™ 6 0 0 5 - T 5 A L U M I N U M A L L O Y | E X C L U S I V E P O W E R C O AT ™ F I N I S H ULTRAFENCE.COM | 800.656.4420 Ultra and the picket caps logo is a registered trademark of Ultra Aluminum Manufacturing Inc. You won't nd many privacy fence panel systems with this amazing combination of attributes. You can't get it with wood, vinyl or steel. It must be Ultra Aluminum. ™ eclipse vinyl eclipse strong + beautiful + low-maintenance aluminum and a limited lifetime warranty total

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