Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/995042
66 • JULY 2018 • WORLD FENCE NEWS If they are "car pooling" and it is a voluntary gesture by the employee, it is not compensable. One word of caution. In our in- dustry there are some grey areas in this portion of the law. Remember, I said that the one-day special assignment rule applies only to employees who work at a perma- nent fixed location. Because crews may report every day to the staging area of the yard to pick up their supplies for the day, and then be sent out on various assign- ments in a wide radius, they could be considered fixed or non-fixed employ- ment personnel, depending on your point of view. If the employees are, in fact, con- sidered non-fixed employment per- sonnel, the travel time would not be compensable, as the one day special assignment rule only applies to fixed location workers. I discussed this issue several years ago with my corporate attorney and even he was unsure of the exact inter- pretation of the law in this matter. Together we concluded that if the crews need to report directly to a work site that is outside their normal trav- el parameters that travel time should then be compensable. If, however, the crews have a one or more day tempo- rary assignment to report directly to a job site that is within their normal travel parameters, that travel time should not be compensable. Overnight travel The overnight travel rule, as the name implies, applies to employees whose work keeps them away from home for one or more nights. During overnight trips, the time an employee spends as a passenger during typical working hours must be compensated, because the employee is substituting travel time for other du- ties. Employers are not required to compensate workers for travel time outside normal working hours unless the employee is required to drive. When taking an overnight trip the employer is only required to pay wag- es for time spent for normal working hours, unless however the employee actually works or is engaged in work related duties for longer than his or her normal working hours. In this case, of course, the extra hours would be compensable. As I mentioned, the only excep- tion to this rule is if the employee is required to drive, and in that case he or she is entitled to full compensation for all the hours traveled. However, if the employee voluntarily chooses to drive he or she is only entitled to com- pensation for normal working hours. Important: Without getting too complicated, when computing compensable trav- el time try to always use my "rule of thumb" that compensable time "be- gins as soon as the employee begins any work related activity and ends as soon as the employee ends all work re- lated activities, regardless of what that activity is." There are many more statutes, both federal and state, that I have be- come familiar with and if I can be of further help or if you have any further questions about the Portal-to-Portal Act please do not hesitate to contact me at Profit Builders International at my contact info below. I will try to answer any specific portal-to-portal questions but I must again qualify that I am not a lawyer and any interpretation of the law is only my learned opinion. As with all business decisions re- lating to legal, tax, employment and other matters, you must consult with an attorney, CPA or other qualified business advisor. Working hard and putting in long hours running a fencing operation is one thing that most of you are quite familiar with. How- ever, making a sub- stantial profit and sustaining a quality lifestyle with security and peace of mind is something that far too few fencing companies enjoy. Tom Lu- by's Profit Builders International and its business partners in the fencing in- dustry would like to help you get there and beyond. Contained in the revolu- tionary new "Roadmap to Success" program from PBI are all of the other things that fencers need to know, the "business stuff" necessary to suc- cessfully run your fencing company. The "Roadmap to Success" is avail- able on CD, along with "The Close" and "The Roadmap to Success" user manuals by contacting Profit Builders International at 941-981-3677 or cell 941-807-7666, fax 941-981-3677. Vis- it the web site www.profitbuilder.org. Shedding some light on fair pay for travel time continued from page 31 World Fence News, Jr. Page Ad 7.25" x 9" PLEASE CENTER IN THE LIVE AREA 50 50 A N N I V E R S A R Y TH