Washington Expands Compensability of Out-of-Town Travel

Washington employers need to rethink their policies on paying non-exempt personnel for vacation time primarily based upon a latest appellate courtroom ruling that journey time for out-of-town journey is thought of compensable “hours worked” as a issue of Washington legislation. Port of Tacoma v. Sacks, No. 54498-9-II (Clean. Ct. App. Sept. 21, 2021).

The case concerned 4 Washington-dependent hourly workforce who manufactured two journeys to China to observe the production of marine cranes and one excursion to Houston to go to suitable training. The Court docket of Appeals held the employees experienced to be compensated for all of the time they put in traveling to, from, and inside of China, not just the eight hours per day the Port experienced negotiated with the employees’ union.

The Courtroom of Appeals concluded that journey time for out-of-city vacation is considered compensable “hours worked” as a matter of Washington law, regardless of no matter if any do the job is done in the course of the journey, no matter if the employer owns or controls the employee’s usually means of transportation, or irrespective of whether the employee’s journey usually takes put all through standard function hrs.

The Courtroom embraced the coverage advocated by the Washington Section of Labor & Industries, which each distinguished right away and out-of-town travel from other kinds of travel and contrasted Washington regulation with the a lot more employer-welcoming federal law in the place. The Department’s assistance for its investigators states:

Washington legislation is a lot more favorable to workers than federal regulation. The federal Portal to Portal Act restrictions compensability of out-of-city journey to travel that requires position throughout the employee’s typical get the job done hrs. The federal law also dictates that the vacation to the airport or prepare station is regarded as a ordinary commute and is not compensable. In Washington, all vacation time related to get the job done is compensable no matter of the hours when it requires put and consists of the time to get to the airport or practice station.

If a individual is demanded to vacation to a teaching seminar in a further city, the time from when the employee leaves their dwelling until finally they arrive at their resort in the other town is all compensable. Also, the time from when the employee leaves…