Student Travel Guidelines
- During periods of academic break (spring break, winter break, summer break) student employees may work up to 40 hours per week. Hours worked in excess of 40 will be compensated at the required premium rate (overtime).
- Travel during the employee’s normal working hours, including scheduled days off, shall be considered time worked. Travel outside normal working hours is not time worked. (The person driving the vehicle is an exception).
- Overnight travel during non-work hours away from home does not constitute hours worked. Of course, if the employee actually “works” during the travel time, the time must be treated as time worked
- The items below should serve as question/answer type scenarios to assist in determining eligibility for paid time during travel.
- An employee who normally finishes work on campus at 5 p.m. is working on a job at an alternate site until 8:30 p.m. The employee is required to return to the campus after completing the assignment and arrives at the campus at 9 p.m. All of the time, including time spent in travel between the alternate job site and the campus, shall be counted as hours worked. On the other hand, if the employee goes directly from the alternate job site to home, the travel shall not be considered as hours of work, unless the alternate work site is outside the normal commuting areas of the campus.
- An employee who normally starts work at 8 a.m. is required to report to work on campus at 7 a.m. for instructions, tools, etc., before proceeding to an alternate work site. The time spent traveling to the alternate work site shall be considered as hours of work. On the other hand, if the employee goes directly from home to the alternate work site, the travel time shall not be considered as hours of work, unless the alternate work site is outside the normal commuting area of the campus.
- An employee who normally starts work at 8 a.m. is required to travel by airplane to another campus. The employee’s scheduled departure time is 7 a.m. The time spent traveling from home to the airport shall not be time worked. Hours of work begin with the scheduled departure of the plane. The employee returns by airplane, lands at 9 p.m. on the same day (or a subsequent day), and returns directly home. Hours of work end at the time of arrival at the airport.
- An employee who normally works until 5 p.m. departs from the home city on a 4 p.m. flight which arrives at the alternate work site at 6 p.m., where the employee remains overnight. The time between 4 p.m. and 5 p.m. shall be time worked; the time between 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. shall not be time worked.
- An employee who normally works until 5 p.m. departs from the home city on a 6 p.m. flight, which arrives at the alternate work site at 8 p.m., where the employee remains overnight. The travel time shall not be considered time worked.
Extra voluntary payment practices are discouraged because, while not against the law, they establish future expectations, and if a take-away becomes necessary; it might become a negative employee relations issue.
