claiming for travel out of office hours

[twinkle2]

Me and a colleague are going to Newcastle tonight for work reasons, leaving strait from work and arriving about half ten, then coming back tomorrow (after work) at about half 4 getting back about half ten. Am I entitle to claim for this? I asked my boss and he said "he will see, depending on performance" - not sure what this means cause we are only going to meet some new colleagues and also our performance has nothing to do with the travel time.
Thanks

[Bev2007]

Your boss's answer is a bit enigmatic to say the least. maybe he means "if you drive well" !! A performance related bonus is not at all the same thing as paying someone for extra hours worked and its pretty mean of him to muddle the two.

I suspect what he really means is "I dont know - Ill have to ask my boss and/or see if anyone else asks".

There should be a clause in your employment contract which spells this out. But, if you are monthly salaried I would say it was bad form for you to ask to be recompensed, and if you are hourly paid it is very bad form of him not to offer. If you are in the middle then it is a bit grey. Are you normally paid overtime? Did you volunteer to go? Did you say you didnt want to go? Whats in your contract? Are you on teh same contract type as teh colleague you are going with? etc etc

[cascarelli]

Do you mean recompensed for your expenses or for overtime?

You should certainly be paid for your costs in travelling. Whether you get paid overtime or not depends on your contract. Do you normally get paid overtime? As a very rough guide managers etc wouldn't be paid overtime but other workers might.

[twinkle2]

Thanks for the answers.
Yes I meant purely for the time itself, everything else is being paid for apart from this at the moment. We do normally get paid overtime so hopefully it will apply this time.
Thanks again

[Bev2007]

If you normally get paid overtime then yes, you should in this instance too. Maybe when you asked him initially you said something ambiguous like, "Will I get any money for this" and he interpreted that as a question about bonus....

[cascarelli]

Just a thought....taking it to extremes......say you had to fly to Australia or the States for something work orientated i.e. to meet an important client or something, would you expect to claim overtime for all your travelling time?

I do think the travelling time gets into a grey area.