Overnight Business Travel: Should Employees Get Compensatory Time Off for Night Train Journeys?

Hi friends,

Is it necessary to allow compensatory time off (holiday) for overnight travel by train made by an employee for official business tours? Please note that all travel expenses are covered by the company. Some employees are requesting compensatory time off for night travel, stating that they are going on business tours after completing their day duties.

Kindly advise me.

Regards,
Reebi

Legally, traveling by train or bus, and for that matter, in any mode, is not included in working hours.

Assume a service mechanic travels and commences travel at 8 pm and reaches the site the next day morning. He goes to the hotel, gets ready, and reaches the site to attend to the work. His work commences then. Until he completes the job, it is considered work hours. Assume he finishes the job at 4 PM and leaves; it does not mean he has not worked for the full day.

Then he travels back to his place and sleeps during the night. It is not considered work hours, and he is not going to be paid extra wages for that. If he is not eligible for extra wages, then how is he eligible for Comp off?

Normally, if a person travels for, say, ten days and comes back, the general practice is to allow him time off to spend time with his family. It is not a legal requirement. It is more of a consideration.

Siva