Q: One of our hourly, nonexempt employees is attending our company’s annual conference that includes activities after 5 p.m. Are we required to pay them for the time spent traveling to the conference, as well as for the events attended after 5? Would this time count toward overtime?
Under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), attendance at lectures, meetings, training programs, conferences, and similar activities is counted as working time and must be compensated, unless four criteria are met: Attendance is outside normal hours, voluntary, not job-related, and not performed concurrently with regular work.
Working time, whether it be event attendance or otherwise, must be compensated even if it occurs outside the employee’s regular workday. Whether an hourly, nonexempt employee should be paid for time spent at an after-hours event will depend on whether the employee typically works after 5 p.m., attends conference activities voluntarily, has job duties related to the activities, and works during the activities.
A separate set of criteria governs conference-related travel. Generally, if an employee is a passenger on an airplane, a train, a boat, or an automobile; travels during non-shift hours; and doesn’t perform work while traveling, the employee doesn’t need to be compensated for time spent traveling to a conference. However, if any one of those criteria isn’t met, travel time may become compensable, although “typical” travel time, such as a morning commute, mealtime, or other chunks of time that would have occurred during the same window, may sometimes be noncompensable.
Both event attendance and travel, if deemed working time, count toward overtime thresholds. Accurately determining whether these activities are compensable is crucial, especially for employers sending not one but multiple employees to an after-hours conference or event. You should consult counsel to determine whether travel and conference time is compensable in any given set of circumstances.
Corey J. Hunter is an attorney in the Salt Lake City office of Parsons Behle & Latimer. He can be reached by calling 208-536-6786 or by sending an email to chunter@parsonsbehle.com.