Avoiding a Wrong Turn When Employees Travel

Practical Law Article w-002-4869 (Approx. 7 pages)

Avoiding a Wrong Turn When Employees Travel

by Practical Law Labor & Employment

Travel Safety

Travel for work always involves a potential risk to employee health and safety. Even routine business trips can result in an employee's injury or illness, or exposure to a pandemic, natural disaster, or other crisis. Employers should be aware of the various state and federal health and safety obligations implicated by employee travel, including workers' compensation laws, the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSH Act), and equivalent state laws.

For more information about employee health and safety, including during business travel, see:

Employers should also be prepared to deal with the administrative and financial issues that may arise, including:

Trip cancellation and rebooking fees.
Temporary housing and living expenses.
Evacuation costs.
Emergency or foreign healthcare services.
Required or recommended quarantine.

Company Car Policy

Employee use of company vehicles on or off duty raises several concerns, including safety standards, liability for injury and property damage, and compensation for vehicle expenses and travel time. Employers should consider implementing a company car policy that clearly addresses:

The minimum requirements to operate a company car, such as a valid driver's license.
Permissible uses of company cars, including whether personal use is allowed.
Safety standards.
Responsibility for expenses, such as fuel and maintenance.
Mileage and other recordkeeping.
The amount of taxable income for employees, if personal use is allowed.
The use of hands-free devices while driving.
Possession of guns in company cars.

For a model company car policy that addresses these issues and more, see Standard Document, Company Car Policy.

Wage and Hour Issues

Compensable Work Time

The FLSA and equivalent state and local wage and hour laws govern minimum wage and overtime pay standards, including what employee activities constitute compensable time. Employee travel is frequently a source of confusion because compensability of travel time depends on the circumstances. For example, regular travel to and from work is generally not compensable, but travel from job site to job site after the workday begins generally is.

Out-of-town travel can be more complicated. For example, under the FLSA, travel time for overnight, out-of-town assignments is compensable if the travel occurs during the employee's normal working hours, including normal business hours, on regularly scheduled days off. However, the usual meal time may be deducted from the total compensable time. Travel time outside of the nonexempt employee's normal working hours spent as a passenger in a car, train, airplane, bus, or boat generally is not compensable under the FLSA unless work is performed during that time.

For more information about compensable travel time under the FLSA, see Practice Note, Compensable Time: Travel Time To/From Work. For state wage and hour laws concerning employee travel time, see Wage and Hour Laws: State Q&A Tool: Question 5.

Business and Travel Expenses

Employees frequently incur out-of-pocket expenses while traveling for work. Business travel expenses can include transportation costs such as mileage, train or plane tickets, and taxis, as well as lodging and meals. Reimbursement of eligible expenses is frequently a benefit employees enjoy, but it can also be required under applicable wage and hour laws. For example, requiring employees to absorb the cost of traveling between job sites during each work day may constitute an improper deduction from their wages.

Depending on the employer's particular needs and circumstances, a written expense reimbursement policy can serve several purposes, including:

Managing employee expectations about which business-related expenses may be reimbursed by the employer.
Establishing procedures employees must follow, such as requiring employees to:
- submit expense reimbursement forms within a certain time frame;
- have their managers or supervisors approve the expenses; and
- submit receipts and other substantiating documents for the expenses.
Requiring employees to use specified third-party vendors for certain expenses, such as a specified rental car agency that provides discounted rates to the employer.
Ensuring that business expenses are appropriate.
Supporting employees who are traveling on business and promoting employee morale.

When drafting or reviewing an expense reimbursement policy, employers should consider:

Which expenses are reimbursable.
Whether employees are required to submit receipts or other substantiating documentation.
What expenses require prior authorization by a manager or supervisor.
Who will approve or audit reimbursement requests.

For a model business expense policy, see Standard Document, Travel and Business Expense Reimbursement Policy.

Immigration Issues

US immigration law includes several steps that employers, foreign workers coming to work in the US, and business travelers coming to the US for business meetings or conferences, must navigate before the travelers may lawfully enter the US to perform work or return to their intended activities. These steps are meant to ensure that each foreign national entering the US has a valid purpose and is not barred because of health, criminal, or immigration problems.

Each of the steps required for entry and admission to the US of foreign workers or business travelers may present a challenge to the employer and the traveler. Employers must identify the correct nonimmigrant visa classification for the worker or business visitor and may need to sponsor a worker through a nonimmigrant visa petition or an extension of nonimmigrant status. Travelers may need to obtain a nonimmigrant visa or, if traveling under the visa waiver program, pre-approval or renewal for visa-free travel called Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA). Travelers seeking to enter the US must present the correct documents and must have no health, criminal, or immigration problems that might prevent their entry to the US.

For more information about travel by foreign workers and business travelers, see:

Avoiding a Wrong Turn When Employees Travel | Practical Law