Paid time
earlearl
31 Posts
If an employee is instructed to drive to the airport and wait on another employee to arrive and it on the weekend or after hours of normal work, is this person to be compensated? Sometimes an employee has to drive 2 hours to the airport to pick up someone only to find out that person will be coming in on the next flight which could be several hours later. So they wait until the next flight. Sometimes this is on weekends and sometimes after 5:00 in the evening. I would think if it is within 40 hours they would be compensated the normal rate of pay and if over 40 hours, they would be compensated time and a half. What is the answer. We are located in Texas.
Comments
The issue of "waiting" is not that much different under DOL regulations (see 29CFR785.15. Also take a look at .16 as a guide to your answer.
Waiting time is compenable when certain conditions exist...
if the employee has not been completely relieved from duty and allowed to leave the airport and the period is not long enough for the employee to use the time as he see fit. In that case, the wait time would appear to be compensable. Although, the actual determination of compensability is case specific. But it does seem to be compensable as work time even though he is waiting.
The employer is "refusing" to pay the employee for the drive time to and from the airport on the basis that driving is not the employee's regular duties and that it occurred on a regular day off? Even though it may not be the employee's principal activities, he still performed work for the employer, at the employer's instructions, by driving a car to transport another person, carrying out the mission of the employer. Even if this were a situation of the emplyee driving from one city to another for business related to his own regular duties, at the instructions of the employer, if it occurred during regular work hours, even on a day off, the employee would be entitled to compensation.
Generally, the type of job-related activities that aren't compensable are voluntary ones by the employee, e.g. charity drive, that are outside of work hours or not at the direction of the employer, or the employee is generally free to use the time as he or she sees fit, such as waiting. Driving for the specific purpose of picking up an employee at the direction of the employer of course isn't something that would allow the employee to pursue personal interests during the drive time.
On the other hand, the "waiting" time resulting from the delay in arrival, upon your clarification, DOESN'T look like it needs to be compensated. Four hours is a pretty long time - long enough for thd employee to do other things during those four hours, at his pleasure and control, instead of being restricted to waiting.
I would think that the employer would want to make the activity a compensable one, if only for the morale issues, if he is going to make this a routine responsibility for an employee.
That's just my opinion. Again review the prvisions I cited in my post above.
I think the drive time is definitely compensable and the wait time is probably not since it was long enough for the employee to do personal things. However, you'd need to weigh the pros and cons of not paying the wait time. What if the employee returned home and then drove another long distance back to the airport? Would it save much time? If you don't pay, will the employee feel taken advantage of and unwilling to do this on his own time in the future? The consequences of not paying may be greater than the cost of paying all the time.
Is this employee paid an hourly rate that seems too high for driving/waiting? I think it's legal to offer the employee a different rate of pay (i.e., lower) for these duties. You might have a standard of $10/hr for all such driving duties that employees are given outside the scope of their normal job. It's just an idea to consider.
J. Cacciola, SPHR