Training Time
RYoung
5 Posts
A non-exempt hourly employee attends a four-day conference. Two of those days are outside of the employees regularly scheduled workday (Saturday and Sunday). The employee does no productive work for the employer during the conference. The employer pays the cost of the program and for the travel expenses.
Is all time spent training at this conference be considered training time and therefore compensable, including the hours on Saturday and Sunday? If so, would this be true even if the employee volunteers to attend?
If attending the conference is considered training time and therefore compensable, would the travel time getting to and back from the conference be compensable also?
If it isn’t training time, would the travel time getting to and back from the conference be not compensable?
Thanks in advance for any comments!
Is all time spent training at this conference be considered training time and therefore compensable, including the hours on Saturday and Sunday? If so, would this be true even if the employee volunteers to attend?
If attending the conference is considered training time and therefore compensable, would the travel time getting to and back from the conference be compensable also?
If it isn’t training time, would the travel time getting to and back from the conference be not compensable?
Thanks in advance for any comments!
Comments
I'm not sure if this will work, but check out this thread: [url]http://www.hrhero.com/employersforum/DCForumID17/1490.html[/url], or look for "Overtime Pay for Out of State Training" on the bottom of p. 7 or top of p. 8 of the Wage and Hour board (use the little numbers at the bottom of the topic list page).
You have confused me a little bit . . . if the employee did "no productive work", why would the employer pay expenses? If the employee attended for the benefit of the company, it sounds to me like they did productive work (albeit sitting and listening to someone drone on does not seem productive!).
Here is a DOL page that should help, the one that Pork references in the above-mentioned post.
[url]http://www.dol.gov/dol/allcfr/ESA/Title_29/Part_785/29CFR785.38.htm[/url]
In part, it says:
The time is not only hours worked on regular working days during normal working hours but also during the corresponding hours on nonworking days. Thus, if an employee regularly works from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. from Monday through Friday the travel time during these hours is worktime on Saturday and Sunday as well as on the other days.
However, I believe that as employers, it behooves us to be fair. For example, we sent one of our second shift employees to Tulsa for a day (we chartered a flight since several employees went). Not one second of the trip overlapped her normally scheduled time, but we paid her the same as the other employees received because it was for our benefit. If I have to sit at a conference meeting until six o'clock but I usually end work at five, and I'm not being paid for that last hour, I'm definitely not going to be very happy about staying and might very well take off.
Actually, re-reading, you have two separate issues here. Travel time and training time. I was thinking there was a checklist of perhaps four things to consider if an employee's training is considered voluntary (and therefore not compensible). I'm hoping someone else can help, because brief internet and forum searches aren't turning much up.
1) Outside of work hours
2) Not required for their job
3) Not paid for by employer
4) Ugh. Can't remember.
Hopefully this will give you some place to start, though. I guess going with hypotheticals, if the employee attends a four day training on preparing for government audits, I would consider all four days compensible. If Thurs/Fri was training on audits and Sat/Sun was an add-on session on scrapbooking (and your employee does not take care of the company scrapbook), I'd pay Th/F, not Sa/Su, and depending on when they traveled, the travel time. If an employee calls on a customer in a faraway city and then went to a four day scrapbooking convention, I'd pay for the travel time, the customer visit, and not the convention. Clear as mud?
I utilized FLSA Hours Worked Advisor on DOL's website. It was helpful as well.
[url]http://www.dol.gov/elaws/esa/flsa/hoursworked/default.asp[/url]
We are moving forward as if training time on the weekend is not compensable, although I have my doubt based on the following analysis:
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Under DOL regulations, there is a four prong test that ALL must be met before the time is NOT compensable:
1. Attendance is outside of regular working hours. In our case, clearly some of the time is (Saturday and Sundaya).
2. Employee's attendance is, in fact, voluntary. In our case, it's not so clear to me, but to others it's clearly voluntary.
3. Training is not directly related to job. In our case, it seems to me the training is clearly related to the employee's job, because the training is designed to make the employee handle his job more effectively.
4. Employee does not perform any productive work during such attendance. In our case, it’s pretty clear that the employee will not perform productive work.
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Since all four prongs must be met before the time is NOT compensable, and since #3 is not met, then the time should be paid.
And if that is the case, then the time spent traveling to the conference (during normal work hours, regardless of day) would also be compensable.
Your thoughts and comments are appreciated.
I'd say 1 is in doubt because half the time is during normal hours. 2 - who decided this employee would attend training? 3 - If it's a grey area, you can bet a jury of people who are employed somewhere will feel it's related, and 4, as I said, being trained IS productive work, if it's for the job.
Sounds like you have an uphill battle, though. My cousin is currently in huge discussions with her employer over some of these very issues. One in particular was that she has attended an annual conference four times and had to use vacation time (other members of her department have done the same) while other departments who sent people paid them for hours worked (as required by law). It puts it in perspective and makes me SO very thankful that I don't have problems of that caliber. Whew.
Good luck to you!
We also consider holidays as "hours worked," which added into their overtime calculations for the work week. We try to minimize overtime by allowing employees to flex out the overage before the end of their workweek. So they all got to go home 2 2/3 hours early on Friday, as well as getting paid 8 hours for the holiday plus double time for the time they drove on the holiday.
If a traveling employee can completely divert his attention away from something the employer requires during that travel (such as driving or sending email or typing a report), then it's my understanding that the travel time doesn't have to be compensable.