Work Travel over weekends for Monday starts

whatnext

Hi

Doing quite a bit of travel with work at the moment, no issues with that but all the travel is over the weekends, so I'm in place for Monday morning. Not only that the last 3 trips have been over bank holiday weekends (away for a week at a time).

How do people handle this with regards to getting the time back. There is no friction over this between me and the company, its great to have the opportunities that I'm getting, but my partner is not amused to put it mildly as this is the third bank holiday that I will be away for this year. She does appreciate it has to be done for the sake of my job and the people I work with.

So far this year (after the next trip) I have been travelling for 6 weekends (2 days outbound and one back, 9 days) and worked 3 bank holidays. So thats a total of twelve days of my time off that I've lost.

There is no provision for this travel in my contract, there is no over time either. I'd be 90% sure that what ever I ask my manager for (within reason) will be granted, but before I do I'd like it to be fair and reasonable, and also ideally I'd like to back it up with examples of what others do in similar situations.

There are other issues, like increased child care costs, as my partner works weekends, we have incurred 6 extra days child care costs. Is it reasonable / normal to look for this additional cost to be covered?

As I have already stated, I'm looking to see what if anything other companies policies are in these circumstances. My managers have always been very fair to me and I have been fair to them also over the years, but they would never rock the boat, ie from their point of view there is no issue therefore nothing to discuss unless I bring it up. There is no problems with regard to approaching the management, I just have to do it in the right manner, with my point of view clearly set out and backed up.

tbh

whatnext wrote: »

Hi

Doing quite a bit of travel with work at the moment, no issues with that but all the travel is over the weekends, so I'm in place for Monday morning. Not only that the last 3 trips have been over bank holiday weekends (away for a week at a time).

How do people handle this with regards to getting the time back. There is no friction over this between me and the company, its great to have the opportunities that I'm getting, but my partner is not amused to put it mildly as this is the third bank holiday that I will be away for this year. She does appreciate it has to be done for the sake of my job and the people I work with.

So far this year (after the next trip) I have been travelling for 6 weekends (2 days outbound and one back, 9 days) and worked 3 bank holidays. So thats a total of twelve days of my time off that I've lost.

There is no provision for this travel in my contract, there is no over time either. I'd be 90% sure that what ever I ask my manager for (within reason) will be granted, but before I do I'd like it to be fair and reasonable, and also ideally I'd like to back it up with examples of what others do in similar situations.

There are other issues, like increased child care costs, as my partner works weekends, we have incurred 6 extra days child care costs. Is it reasonable / normal to look for this additional cost to be covered?

As I have already stated, I'm looking to see what if anything other companies policies are in these circumstances. My managers have always been very fair to me and I have been fair to them also over the years, but they would never rock the boat, ie from their point of view there is no issue therefore nothing to discuss unless I bring it up. There is no problems with regard to approaching the management, I just have to do it in the right manner, with my point of view clearly set out and backed up.

I travel regularly with work, generally out on Sunday back on Saturday. I just put in a vacation request for the following week and put something like time off in lieu of travel time and it's never been a problem. Only proviso is that I have to take the days within three weeks. Personally, I think it'd be a stretch to look for childcare costs to be covered, especially if you're getting the time off in lieu, but if you've a good relationship it might be no harm to at least raise the issue.

tatli_lokma

I have had a few experiences with different companies and managers on this one. With one manager, you got paid travel allowances for every night you are away from home - this is in addition to your standard meal/accommodation expenses. So first off you got about €30 in overnight allowance for the Sunday. Then the time you left home to the time you arrived at the hotel was classed as working hours. I usually got this back as time in lieu, but if I was travelling a lot over a few weeks he would pay it as overtime rather than let the TOIL build up. You were never expected to drive yourself and park at the airport - a taxi was always included in the agreement both to and from the airport regardless of time. That was the best situation I had.

I have also had a situation where the overnight allowance was only €10, so made no real benefit to have it, but I got paid overtime at Sunday (double) rates from the time of leaving home to the time of arriving at the hotel. The same on the way back if I had to leave earlier than normal working hours or got home after my normal finishing time. Also, unofficially if I was late home I wouldn't have to come in as early the next day, and would usually take and hour or two the following morning. You were allowed to get a taxi to/from the airport. Again, it wasn't too bad.

Then I changed teams - same company as above but a new manager. She would not pay overtime for the travelling days and only gave TOIL at standard hourly rate - so 4 hours travelling = 4 hours TOIL. She wouldn't include time from home, as she reckoned travelling from home to the office would be expected anyway, and only calculated travelling time from the office onwards (office was beside the airport, so the 30 mins minimum you took to get to the airport wasn't included). You weren't allowed to get a taxi unless the airport parking was working out more expensive and even then she would ask if someone could not collect you and she would give you €10 petrol money! When you arrived in the UK she expected you to get a train to the training centre - even in the winter at 9.30pm! A taxi would cost about €25, the train was €8, so she insisted you get the train, or if you got a taxi only €8 was allowable to claim. You never got any flexibility the next morning after arriving on a late flight the night before, unless it arrived after midnight.

So I suppose what I am saying is that travel policies and what is allowable can differ greatly from company to company.

From a HR point of view, my argument is that time spent travelling for work purposes outside of your normal commute should always be either paid time or TOIL. From an insurance point of view, were you to have an accident it would be considered to have happened whilst working. Different companies I have worked for have not always agreed with this.

I think you should have a chat about this with your manager - you say you have a good relationship so you should be able to have a chat about it without it looking like you are complaining exactly. I also think that it is a fair point to raise that you have worked so many long weekends. You should be getting time in lieu for these for sure. Perhaps point out that you are relishing the opportunities you are being given, but equally you need to ensure that there is some work-life balance and also that financially you are able to sustain your working levels. And it is better to have this chat sooner rather than later as the longer you keep agreeing to the travel the harder it will be to opt out later if it gets too much. It might simply be that management don't appreciate that it is getting a bit much for you - some people love to travel and get away from the kids! They might think you are loving the travel. The only way to find out if a compromise can be made is to approach the subject with your manager.

another thing you could do is to approach it in such a way as to say that you have a number of family committments coming up over the next few months and you want to make sure that there is no clash between work travel requirements and the family committments. At least if you can get communication going regularly so that you can say - 'yes that weekend is fine, but not the one after as I have x/Y/Z planned/no childcare' or whatever, you might not feel so much under the burden of the travel

whatnext

Thanks for the responses

The travel is all overseas, my last trip was
UK Friday night (after work), in hotel at the airport for 11pm
Transatlantic Saturday am, arrive Saturday PM local time.
deal with jet-lag Sunday - leisure time :rolleyes:
Work Monday Tuesday.
6am flight Wednesday (meaning I'm out of the hotel by 4am) 4 hour flight to another location,
Work Weds, Thurs and Friday.
7pm Flight Friday,
Arrive London c. 11am Saturday. wait around for 4pm ish flight to Dublin home for 7pm ish Saturday.

I tried flying out on the Saturday night / Sunday first time, but it was a disaster work wise, I was useless until the Wednesday.

Anyone know where I could find the Civil Service rates for a gig like that? found nothing relevant on google

If I outline that as option a/ and something more reasonable as option b/ I'm sure to get a decent result. Like all managers, mine likes you to come to the table with the solution as well as the problem. But always needs to be given a decision to make, that way they resolved the issue - not me

Stheno

I've been you, working in an Irish company but sent abroad.

My contract didn't mention it at all.

I ended up agreeing the following:

1. Travel on Saturdays treated as a day of work.
2. Travel on Sunday before 4pm treated as a day of work.
3. Day in lieu for all bank holidays (I worked five of them last year, day in lieu fine for me but not the same value as partner and I having a long weekend)

Expense wise I had 25 euro a day, not much on a Sat/Sun, so my company compromised and I could exceed expenses when I was abroad at weekends and couldn't go home

It's a right minefield, one thing I'd ask is if you are going to the same place all the time? I was and the company rented an apartment so I felt like I'd something of a life instead of going home to a hotel all the time?