NEW DOL Opinion Letter on Travel Time

In non-election news, the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division recently issued an opinion letter revisiting its understanding as to what is compensable travel time under the Fair Labor Standards Act—an area of wage and hour law that has tripped up employers for decades. As we know, commute time between an employee’s house and the worksite is generally not compensable. The recent opinion letter addressed the compensability of travel time in three different scenarios.

Scenario 1: Local Worksites

The worksites are local and near the employer’s principal place of business. Foremen are required to first report to the employer’s principal place of business and pick up a work truck with necessary tools and materials needed at the worksite and must return the work truck at the end of each day. Other workers are given the option of reporting to the principal place of business and riding with the foreman to the worksite or reporting to the worksite directly.

OPINION: The foremen’s travel to and from the employer’s principal place of business and the worksite is compensable because it is integral and indispensable to the principal activities that the foremen are employed to perform. However, because the non-foremen are not required to report to the employer’s principal place of business first and are doing so for their own personal reasons, their travel time to and from the local worksite is not compensable.

Situation 2: Remote Job Sites—Staying in the Area

In this hypothetical, the worksites are between 1 to 4.5 hours’ travel time away from the employer’s principal place of business. Employers provide hotel accommodations and meal stipends to the workers. Foremen are required to pick up a company truck rom the employer’s principal place of business, drive it to the remote job site, and then return the work truck and materials at the end of the job. Other workers can catch a ride with the foremen from the employer’s principal place of business if they want, otherwise they can just report directly to the remote worksite.

OPINION: Again, the foremen’s travel to and from the employer’s principal place of business and the worksite is compensable working time. However, whether the other workers must be compensated for the time traveling from either their home or the employer’s principal place of business to the remote worksite depends on when the workers are traveling. Regardless of whether the other workers are driving their own vehicles or riding as a passenger with the foremen, if the travel occurs during normal working hours, the travel time is compensable. If the employer offers to provide transportation form the principal place of business to the remote worksite, then the employer could choose to pay the employee equal to either (a) the actual amount of time spent driving to the remote job site, or (b) the amount of time it would have taken the worker to get to the jobsite if the worker had accepted the employer’s offer of transportation. The time spent going between the hotel and the worksite each day is never compensable.

Situation 3: Remote Job Sites—Commuting Each Day

Same scenario as about but, instead of staying at a hotel, the employees travel to and from the remote worksite from their homes each day.

OPINION: Again, the foremen must be paid for the time spent traveling between the employer’s principal place of business and the remote worksite. However, the other workers do not need to be paid for the time spent traveling from their homes to the remote worksite unless such travel occurs during their normal working times. Assuming these employees must report to the worksite at the same time under Scenario #2 and Scenario #3, the commute time would not be compensable.

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