Company not paying expenses

judas101

HI all, want a few opinons on this.

I recently had a job interview in London.
Its a very very large company.

I had an appointment at 10am on a monday morning.

The HR lady wrote that I would be "reimbursed for all reasonable travel" as is the norm.

ANy other interviews Ive had abroad have organised travel arrangements for me beforehand.

I travelled on sunday evening and booked a hotel in the area (Hammersmith). I was very concious of cost and tried to find the best deal.

A cheque came in the post for my expenses but the ammount was for only my flight. She said that the accomandation cost wasnt deemed reasonable.

At the end of my interview I provided her with 2 recipts, one for the flight and one for the hotel. Nothing was said then and she was happy to take them from me.

I was expected to travel and reture the same day. If the appointment was later in the afternoon I would have done this. For such an early appointment I needed to travel the day before. I had never been in the area either so would have never made the appointment.

Where do I stand on this?

Does the small claims court apply to stuff outside Ireland?

I'm not lying down on this and feel Im 100% in the right.

Comments appreciated.

Tom Young

This is the problem with large companies who have people traveling to and from near EU destinations.

The 06:40 flight from Dublin Airport to London Heathrow would have you in Hammersmith by 8:45 on a good day, 9:30 with a few delays.

Had I been asked to assess the expense claim on the basis of an overnight stay for a 08:30 or 09:00 hours interview, I would have approved the additional expense.

For a 10.00 hours meeting, I simply would not have.

Remember the trip is a 45 minute flight, with a small amount of reasonable commuting time to the airport. 10 - 15 mins on a tube from Paddington Station, connecting from the Heathrow Express train.

Personally, I would not have approved this expense without prior agreement.

I would also assess the reception that grousing over a 120 Euro hotel bill would have on a potential employer of that size. I would also take a view on that.

This may not be what you want to hear, but no harm in hearing it anyway.

Tom

judas101

Thanks for the reply Tom,

Any other opinions on this?

I feel your time scale is a bit out, particualtly the travel from airport to office.

Is it really fair to expect someone to get up at 5:30 and still run the risk of not making the appointment?

NOIMAGINATION

I work in London and have taken the first flight to Stansted on a Monday morning and still made it into work on time - the heathrow express and tubes are extremely reliable - if you are only going for the day you would not need to check in luggage so once you got off the plane you'd go directly to the Heathrow Express which takes 20mins to get to Paddington, and then approx 15 min tube journey to wherever you are going. You'd have been in plenty of time - business people do it all the time....

helimachoptor

Op if you get the job forget about it, if you dont.. moan til you get it:)

judas101

NOIMAGINATION wrote: »

I work in London and have taken the first flight to Stansted on a Monday morning and still made it into work on time - the heathrow express and tubes are extremely reliable - if you are only going for the day you would not need to check in luggage so once you got off the plane you'd go directly to the Heathrow Express which takes 20mins to get to Paddington, and then approx 15 min tube journey to wherever you are going. You'd have been in plenty of time - business people do it all the time....

I'm not saying it's not possible, of course it is.

But for someone who not familiar with that part of London, is it a reasonable demand?
I didn't think so.

judas101

helimachoptor wrote: »

Op if you get the job forget about it, if you dont.. moan til you get it:)

Unfortunately,my situation is the latter.