Advice needed: employment law re 'opportunity'?

singingstranger

Hi folks, I need your advice on behalf of an anonymous friend.

X works for a promotional company. They operate via a website where an employee select what jobs they are interested in, with most jobs listed via a brief description. X and five friends went down to Cork to do a promotion which lasted from 12pm-4pm. However, X had to get a train from Heuston at 8am and did not arrive back in Dublin until 7.20pm. The company paid for the train tickets. X is paid on the 17th of every month for the promotions from the previous month. Payment is claimed by filling in a timesheet on the website selecting the job title, the times, etc., which calculates the payment. This job paid €15 per hour, therefore X claimed for €169.95 for the job (based on 11hrs and 20mins of time between work and travel). X was also due about €60 or €75 for another job, but can't remember because his old timesheet is not available on the website. X received my payment for this month totalling €120 - thereofre, essentially, being paid €45-60 for 11hrs20mins work. A friend hasn't even been paid yet and she was due about €100+ more than X.

Basically, I have a vague recollection on something about a law regarding oppurtunity which I think may be applicable here. X is also employed by another promotion company, and could have worked that weekend. However, due to the long hours of the job in Cork, X declared myself unavailable for the alternative job. Is there any regulation that states that X's first employer are therefore obliged to pay for X's transportation time? The same 4 hour job in Dublin pays the same as in Cork or Limerick or Waterford regardless of travel time, which is a bit ridiculous, as is getting paid €60 for 11 hours and 20 minutes work related time... excluding the cost and time of getting to Heuston for 7.40am on a Saturday morning!

Any advice any of you could offer would be much appreciated.

Pythia

This isn't really the advice you're looking for but anyway...
I do promotions and the companies are often out to shaft you. This is the kind of thing you should check before you agree to go to Cork. I sincerely doubt you'll get the extra money.
Generally they will pay mileage if you drive, but won't pay for the actual travel time. Here, they paid for the ticket.
I'm not suprised there was no pay for travel time, now I dunno about legally, but this seems to be the way promotion companies operate.
As I said, I'm not giving a legal perspective, just my own experiences.

amen

I don't think you are going to get paid for the travel time and not sure why you should. You agredd to work z hours and were paid for that plus your train ticket. Why should they pay you for the time you spent travelling there?
If I work in a big city and I work 9-5 and it takes me a 3 hour commute I don't get paid for that!

Nody

By the same idea someone could live in Galway and take the train to Dublin, 3h single way, and then work 2h and take the train home again and claim 8h working day. Long and short answer is nope, no pay and be more careful in the future when you sign up for long commutes.

seamus

In general you don't get paid for the time travelling to and from your workplace.

If you're working on a casual contract basis, as you seem to be, then your workplace is whereever you agreed - in this case Cork. Even though they covered the cost of the tickets, this doesn't mean that they had accepted that you would be paid for the trip.

My work will pay for flights if I have to work/train out of the country. This doesn't mean though that I'm entitled to overtime if I spend 8 hours sitting in the airport.

nesf

No one here can give you legal advice. At most people can relate their own experiences and offer the kind of advice that you might get from a colleague or friend but that's it. If you need legal advice contact a solicitor etc.


I've gotten mileage and food allowances for time spent travelling in the job but never for just travelling to the workplace. I've never heard of someone getting a wage for time spent of a train, just their train ticket being paid for.