Legal Question in Employment Law in Florida
Travel Pay
Our retail company pays assistant store managers on an hourly basis.Recently it was announced that travel time to training sessions in various locations would not be paid for these assistant managers, although other hourly staff will receive travel pay to/from the same sessions. This involves travel by car up to 4.5 hours each way.Is this legal? Additionally, holiday pay of time and a half is paid to all staff working in the store on a holiday except the hourly assistant managers. Is this acceptable? Thank you.
2 Answers from Attorneys
Re: Travel Pay
It depends. Attendance at training programs and similar activities will not be counted as working time only if four criteria are met: it is outside normal hours, it is voluntary, not job related, and no other work is concurrently performed.
Travel that keeps an employee away from home overnight is travel away from home. Travel away from home is clearly work time when it cuts across the employee's workday. The time is not only hours worked on regular working days during normal working hours but also during corresponding hours on nonworking days. However, as an enforcement policy the Division will not consider as work time that time spent in travel away from home outside of regular working hours as a passenger on an airplane, train, boat, bus, or automobile.
Whether you are exempt employees and therefore not entitled to time and a half depends on specifice facts.
Please feel free to contact me for further information if you wish.
Re: Travel Pay
Under the federal overtime law (the Fair Labor Standards Act) as its been applied in Florida, "travel time" from one's home to a location like the ones you've described typically is not viewed by the law as compensable. What's interesting in your situation is that the Company is paying some employees for the same travel time that you're not being paid for. You should contact a wage & hour attorney (or the Department of Labor), so if you are interested in doing so, please feel free to contact us for further assistance and remember that until you take action to protect your rights the statute of limitations on any claims will continue to run.