Overnight Allowance

pepp77

pepp77

pepp77

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For my job I occasionally have to travel to either other countries or far away locations in this country, this often means spending an overnight in said place. Currently my company pays for all travel, the hotel and sensible food and drink intake (some will be expensed, some pre-paid or petty cashed). I also get paid overtime for any time spent travelling or working outside my normal contracted hours (for example if I leave my house at 6am and then get to the hotel at 8pm, having been to the customer in between I receive overtime from 6-8am and 5-8pm).

One thing that myself and a colleague have been discussing is an actual overnight allowance, so a set payment for each night you have to stay away for work on top of the normal covering above - we called it an inconvenience payment.

I have briefly broached this with HR who just said there is no allowance, but said nothing more. We are a small company that had 6 employees when I started 6 years ago with no real processes in place, so a lot of what we get paid was just agreed verbally with the owner or MD, we have since acquired two other companies bringing our workforce to about 40 staff, but all 3 companies operate fairly independently, so official processes are now being bought in.

Sorry for the waffle but what I would like to know is who else has to do overnights away for work (or equivalent) and gets an overnight payment for doing so, and if so is it a set payment for all employees or based on salary etc.

Looking for some ammunition to get this active as I am generally the one who always has to stay overnight, last year I spent about 10 different nights away in total and the year before I spent 6 consecutive nights away for a single job, but for that one I got a "good will" bonus for being away.
 
I work away from home quite regular and don't get a penny extra. I was at CES recently and was working 6am to 10pm and worked right through both weekends.
 
Sounds a little greedy to me, as you're not out of pocket at all for the trip (indeed, you DO get a little overtime). Though IANAL and I've never really been required to travel for work.

for 10 nights a year, I'd let it go. If it was a lot more regular, I might start expecting a little compensation/inflated bonuses etc.
 
Whenever I work away / abroad, I get all expenses paid. We are allowed to enjoyed (within reason) decent meals and drinks because we're having to work away. As long as I don't need to spend any more money than I would do when I am at home, I don't mind.

I don't get overtime money either.
 
mine used to be £30 receipted and £5 unreciepted - then if I worked late then it was the same process as a normal working week
 
We get the meal/drink and overtime payed. Don't get any extra for the 'inconvenience,' though it would be nice. The lorry driver gets £20 a night but he has to stay in his cab not a hotel room.
 
yer_averagejoe said:
Sounds a little greedy to me, as you're not out of pocket at all for the trip (indeed, you DO get a little overtime). Though IANAL and I've never really been required to travel for work.

for 10 nights a year, I'd let it go. If it was a lot more regular, I might start expecting a little compensation/inflated bonuses etc.
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Working away you are massively out of pocket and the incovienve. Other than meal allowance which can only be spent in the hotel we get sod all. which is annoying, so lunches cost us far more as we have no way if making are own. And thus we get nothing for working away and are out of pocket.

Would just be nice if we could spend the money where we wanted and claim it back. Many arguments with them and they wont come around. A few nights is fine. When we're doing 1 in 3 weeks away, crap unhealthy hotel food becomes an issue.
 
We get the choice of claiming up to £25/night with receipts or £20/night without ... doesn't have to be from the hotel but should not include alcohol. Travel and hotel are expensed separately to this.

I normally go for the latter as it cuts down on paper work
 
I'm travelling almost all the time at the moment as are the rest of our little team. Our clients pay our expenses but none of us expect extra remuneration for being away.
 
My situation is a little different being sub contractor I would charge a day rate as a total rather than my normal hourly rate as well as getting lunch/dinner allowance. But in previous companies I have only ever received meal allowance not any other payment, never heard of anyone else getting it really either, provided you are not out of pocket cant see any issue.
 
Aside from our standard expense claims, we are entitled to claim an "Incidental Overnight Expense", which is £25 per night that you're away from home.
 
can't say I've ever had been paid overtime for traveling on a Sunday evening or early Monday morning... nor would I get overtime for working a bit late or an additional payment for staying overnight in a hotel.

I get a salary and a bonus, I claim expenses when traveling and/or get a fixed payment - per diem payment to cover food, drink, miscellaneous expenses. Maybe ask for per diems instead of expenses - I've found that they are often more than enough to cover expenses and if you're careful with spending you can make a nice profit every time you go on a client site for a week or two.
 
Thanks for the replies all. This is what I was expecting to hear and therefore I have no ammunition and will make do with what I currently get which as you say doesn't leave me out of pocket at all.

I think I will ask for inconvenience pay only for times like the 6 night example I gave above.

Cheers all.
 
I travel all over with work. The company pays for airport transfers, flights, hotel, transport to/from location, breakfast/lunch and a £30 per diem. We also get any weekend days back as time in lieu. I'm away for 7-14 days at a time usually.
 
I used to travel all around Europe and the UK a few years ago, every single week.

Used to get overtime like yourself for extra travel hours etc, and a set amount per night, which was paid via BACS into our account the Friday before travelling.

£15 for the UK, £20 Europe, £25 for Switzerland.

Worked out very nice as we always got breakfast at the hotel so could always make a few sandwiches, yoghurt, fruit for lunch then just spend money on dinner.
 
I've worked for a couple of oil & gas operators (including a supermajor) and we never got any overtime when travelling abroad for training, business etc. Everything would be paid for obviously, with often quite generous meal allowances, but we didn't really get anything on top. We could claim £8 a night for incidentals regardless (ie newspapers, snacks etc) but that was it. If you had to travel on weekends your manager would usually give you the time back, but not for weekdays.
 
pepp77 said:
Thanks for the replies all. This is what I was expecting to hear and therefore I have no ammunition and will make do with what I currently get which as you say doesn't leave me out of pocket at all.

I think I will ask for inconvenience pay only for times like the 6 night example I gave above.

Cheers all.
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You already do far better than most people who travel getting overtime.
 
strange, i thought this was much more common! on top of incurring overtime for any additional hours spent travelling, we get hotel and a decent evening meal paid for but also for the incovenience of staying away an extra 42 pounds per night.
it makes working away for a month that bit sweeter.
 
pepp77 said:
Thanks for the replies all. This is what I was expecting to hear and therefore I have no ammunition and will make do with what I currently get which as you say doesn't leave me out of pocket at all.

I think I will ask for inconvenience pay only for times like the 6 night example I gave above.

Cheers all.
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just ask for per diems to cover the lot and keep it simple....
 
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