Working hours and travelling to a different office

[crispybits]

Just a quick question for anyone with experience of similar.

I'm based in office A.

The company wants me to travel to office B (about an extra hour travel time each way) for several days of work over the next couple of months. Kind of like a secondment to a different department working for a different immediate boss, etc.

I'm paid a daily rate, not an hourly rate for services I provide (whch do not contractally include this "secondment")

Where do I stand with asking for the extra travelling time to either be compensated or given back to me in time off in leiu - from a purely legal perspective? (I know it has ramifications from other perspectives such as showing willing and flexibility and earning brownie points, I just don't want to politely ask about it if I haven't got a leg to stand on if I was to push for it - which I won't if the polite answer is "no")

[Vid]

This sort of thing should be covered in your contract or a union agreement, there should be a mileage expense at the very least. Are you in a position to negotiate if nothing exists, to the point of saying "no"?

[Surprised]

Really depends on the details of your contract. If it states specifically that all your work will be based in one office and has no reference to ad hoc projects or travel of any kind then you have a point to push for it. I have had jobs before where if I went to a different office it could add 2 hours each way in travel but it's just tough really.

[crispybits]

Contract only says this on the matter:

The role is based from Office A, although you will be required to travel to other locations as directed by the company and our client

Doesn't mention if this extra travel time is considered as "tough" or if it counts as working time. I don't even have set hours of work contractually so I'm guessing it's gonna be "tough" - guess I'll just ask politely and see if they give ground and if not concede the point with grace

[Surprised]

Contract only says this on the matter:

The role is based from Office A, although you will be required to travel to other locations as directed by the company and our client

Doesn't mention if this extra travel time is considered as "tough" or if it counts as working time. I don't even have set hours of work contractually so I'm guessing it's gonna be "tough" - guess I'll just ask politely and see if they give ground and if not concede the point with grace

Normally it would state if there was compensation for extra travel. No harm in asking though.

[Vid]

Contract only says this on the matter:

The role is based from Office A, although you will be required to travel to other locations as directed by the company and our client

Doesn't mention if this extra travel time is considered as "tough" or if it counts as working time. I don't even have set hours of work contractually so I'm guessing it's gonna be "tough" - guess I'll just ask politely and see if they give ground and if not concede the point with grace

So if they said you had to go to Yorkshire or Scotland or China or Oz?????

[scarletjim]

I'm trying to draw a comparison to those of us with permanent jobs rather than contracts. My normal office is 20 mins on the train, if they ask me to go to the other office, it's about an hour in the other direction. When that happens (once or twice a month), I'm still expected to work pretty much my normal hours, so the loss of time is 'tough', but they do pay my travel expenses for those days. That said, I'm pretty sure if I left say 30 mins early when in office B, no one would mind or even think about it.

[unc.si.]

If it's as you describe then that would probably be seen as reasonable under the fairly loose terms of your contract. If it was more regular or turned more permanent then you've probably got a good case to ask for your contract terms to be varied and negotiate some extra remuneration or holiday.

Depends how long you've been working there, whether its a service contract or contract for services, what you actually do, how well you get paid, how in demand your services are etc etc.

Basically though, it doesn't sound unreasonable but if you get on well with your boss (or new temp boss) I'd probably ask them if you can work half day on Friday or have an extra day off when the 'secondment' is done, ie you're being flexible so can they be a bit flexible in return. Depends how senior you are but your immediate boss may not have the authority to give you any extra pay but might be flexible on hours as long as you get the job done. For a short term job probably much easier going down that route than involving HR etc, and if someone came to me asking for that I'd be OK with it as long as they were generally pretty reliable and someone I wanted to hang onto.

[crispybits]

Turns out I asked to be allowed to work from home for the day on Thursday (yesterday) and got told "no" - so the flexibility only goes one way it seems (I asked why and was given a bare faced easy to spot lie as their reason for denying the request - I had a repair guy coming to my flat so had a legitimate reason to ask)

Nice to know where I stand at least - have not reacted to the lie at all for now, just took the day as holiday instead and started looking at other options moving forwards (not quitting, but definitely including moving away from this liar as my line manager in my next contract renegotiation coming up soon - I can reasonably justify that too I think as my job has grown beyond the scope of her small team)