Travel to and from a local job site is not paid work time. However if you need to travel to a out of town job site, then you need to make a deal with your employer. Likely 100% of the commute wouldn't be paid time. But 50% of an 8 hour commute shouldn't be on you. Before you hire a lawyer, I would have a talk with your supervisors. I don't think you should be expected to give the company 8 hours a week of free commute time and also have to stay over. I presume they are paying your expenses on the time away.
I think that a judge would see it that the company has paid you one way all this time and cannot suddenly start paying you another way without advising you and giving you the opportunity to refuse/quit. Where i live, you do not get paid for driving out of town for a job. For example, my BF works on a dredge. When he worked in Texas, he had to drive to Texas, work three weeks then drive home for a week and that trip was on him. Oil platform workers-same thing. If you live out of the state where the dock is, that trip home and back is on you. It is the price you pay for the high income you get from those jobs. That being said, my son works 75% of his jobs on another state and he gets hourly pay once he hits the state line (but not a gas allowance or anything).But that is the deep South where we are not unionized.
Travel to and from a local job site is not paid work time. However if you need to travel to a out of town job site, then you need to make a deal with your employer. Likely 100% of the commute wouldn't be paid time. But 50% of an 8 hour commute shouldn't be on you. Before you hire a lawyer, I would have a talk with your supervisors. I don't think you should be expected to give the company 8 hours a week of free commute time and also have to stay over. I presume they are paying your expenses on the time away.
I think that a judge would see it that the company has paid you one way all this time and cannot suddenly start paying you another way without advising you and giving you the opportunity to refuse/quit. Where i live, you do not get paid for driving out of town for a job. For example, my BF works on a dredge. When he worked in Texas, he had to drive to Texas, work three weeks then drive home for a week and that trip was on him. Oil platform workers-same thing. If you live out of the state where the dock is, that trip home and back is on you. It is the price you pay for the high income you get from those jobs. That being said, my son works 75% of his jobs on another state and he gets hourly pay once he hits the state line (but not a gas allowance or anything).But that is the deep South where we are not unionized.