Originally Posted by
IEFBR14
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In my own defense, the 2 x 300-miles of driving was on my own time at my
own expense.
I did not order up the Y-ticket. I walked into the office, it was handed
to me, with the words "be there Monday".
If the company did not think the value of my presence at the convention
was worth the full fare Y ticket, they wouldn't have sent me.
Having decided they needed me there, THEY ordered up the ticket through
our contracted travel agent. I didn't even know I was going until I
walked in Monday (no opportunity to whisper to the tvl agent to get the
full fare ticket).....indeed on countless other times, I sent back a
fullfare or nearly fullfare ticket and instead volunteered to come back
Sunday so that the company can spend $298 instead of $750+ for
a non-stayover ticket.
While the ethics might be gray (the company didn't ask me or require
me to drive and expense the mileage), without any influence on my
part in the issuance of the ticket, I certainly do not see the
illegality of it.
If the company had asked me to drive, the driving time would be
considered a work day and I'm not sure my salary for the time plus
the mileage expense would not come out worse for the company.
The company saved my airport parking expense for a week; 2 extra
days per diem, 600 miles reimbursement.
I didn't do the math (maybe I should have before posting this), but
it's possible that it would have cost the company more if they asked
me to drive.
Our state labor laws make a distinction between someone voluntarily
doing something and someone being required to do something, even
if the something is the same thing. (in this case driving instead of
flying).
For the record, I was not judging you, just pointing out that you may want to be carefull. The difference was not that much anyway 600 miles = ~$330 in milage, plus the airport parking that was saved means you did not pocket that much. If you are salary, it would not matter if you traveled on your own time, if you get overtime, you may not have even come out ahead.
However, as an auditor, if I had discovered something like this (highly unlikely that this would ever be caught though) it would be considered fraud regardless of the justification. We did a large expense report audit a year or so ago, and the result was the termination of several employees, and alot of reimbursements to the company by employees who had found ways to come out ahead with their travel expenses. Again, highly unlikely we would have found out what you did, no audit trail.