Company Keeps Miles
 

Hi:

I am trying to find information/articles on corporations that decline to let travelers participate inn FF programs. Anyone have a link to a good article or have any info to share? I have an associate that needs to justify to his company why they should allow travelers to participate in the programs,

Thanks

Many companies have given up it is to difficult to track all the miles. Traveling is difficult enough being away from home maybe the outcome is a free vacation to spend with your family for all the time away is that to much to ask.

Never having worked for a corporation that required me to travel I was just wondering if the salaried employee gets paid extra for the outside work hours travel?

I am a salaried employee for a very large corporation; I have personally seen it go both ways. Pay me what I am worth while I am out on the road and I will give you your money's worth. No bucks? No Buck Rogers! When they get tight with their money, I get tight with my time. Not a lot of rhyme or reason.

>Never having worked for a corporation that
>required me to travel I was just wondering
>if the salaried employee gets paid extra
>for the outside work hours travel?

I've never heard of salaried employees getting paid extra for outside work hours travel, but a good manager would probably keep it in mind. In Silicon Valley, the term "comp time" is sometimes used for unofficial vacation time granted by a manager to an employee for going beyond the call of duty.

Lockheed Martin and Boeing lets employees keep their miles. Until last year Boeing tried to track and use the miles for business but found it to costly and the award tickets were very difficult to obtain for short notice travel.

Jay

[This message has been edited by JayBrian (edited 06-17-2000).]

In the aerospace industry, it is common to be paid the hourly equivalent of your base salary plus $5/hr for hours beyond the norm. There seems to be a reluctance to treat folks as professionals. I would forego the "extra" pay if they weren't playing it both ways. They become fanatical clockwatchers if you need to leave early for appointments etc. My management claims that comp time or "green" time is not legal. If the company is getting the nominal time from the employee and the work is being performed at or above standards, why would you wrap yourself around the axle with such administrivia? Replace managers with leaders!

End o'rant.

THIS PRACTICE IS DISGUSTING!!!!!AS A CEO OF A COUPLE OF COMPANIES, AND ONE WHO PERSONALLY KNOWS THAT BEING A JET JOCKEY IS NOT FUN AND GAMES,THIS PRACTICE IS WRONG.

ANY OF YOU WHO WORK FOR COMPANIES WHO TAKE MILES SHOULD BLOW THE WHISTLE ON THEM SO NONE OF US GOOD GUYS WOULD EVER WORK FOR SUCH A COMPANY, ONE OF WHICH IS HERE IN KANSAS CITY....HALLMARK CARDS

[This message has been edited by tvdt (edited 06-17-2000).]

In sweden the miles(EuroBonus points) belongs to the traveller and its up to the flyer to decide what he or she will do with his points. Use on his next business trip or for a family trip in the summer, the companies CANT force the person to use his points on duty(though they could threaten to fire him or whatever but thats another matter)

FlyAAway,

Yes, comp time is not legal. Also, if your company does not allow you to leave work early and insists you stay until a set hour, you are hourly, regardless of how the company classifies you. Many employees do not realize that the law, not the employer, determines whether you are hourly or not. If the law classifies you as hourly, you are entitled to be paid for every hour you work and 1 1/2 times your hourly rate for every hour beyond 40 hours per week. Even if your employer pays you as salaried, you are still entitled to be paid as hourly if, by law, you are considered hourly. You are also entitled to double the pay if your employer has not properly paid you according to the law. Ok....I am starting to sound like an attorney...but I do know what I am talking about!

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When I went on a business trip, I was paid my hourly wage for each hour I spent traveling whether I was on the plane, at the airport, or going to/from the airport.

Aubie, you said "Yes, comp time is not legal." I find that a little confusing. As a salaried employee, while I don't have to punch a time card, I am supposed to perform the tasks which my manager requests of me. If my manager tells me that my highest priority task as far as she is concerned is to spend today mowing the lawn at home, followed by drinking iced tea by the pool, who am I to protest, and why should this be illegal?

(For the record, I don't have a lawn, nor do I have a pool.)

An extra $5 an hour sounds good to most federal government employees. When they reach a certain hourly rate (about $23/hour) they actually get less than their regular hourly rate for overtime work if they get anything.

Aubie is correct, paying "salaried" employees for overtime, or using comp time in lieu of overtime, is illegal if the company wants the employee to remain salaried. Paying overtime or comp time AUTOMATICALLY make the employee hourly, and entitled to all those nice things Aubie mentioned. So no, we can't be compensated for our weekend travel (or even for the 6-hour flight home after an 8-hour meeting)...which is why most companies let us keep the miles.

And PSHuang, if your employer decides those are your job priorities, great (and can I work there too? http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif)...but they better not be priorities that are tied to your travel schedule (i.e., they're still priorities even in months you don't travel)!

Aubie -

You provide a lot of food for thought. I believe when it is all said and done that I am salaried. But the caveat is manifested in the "professional engineering association", or what is the other word, oh yeah, union.

My job is non-represented, but it appears that I enjoy all of the benefits that those folks have negotiated. It is a murky situation.

I believe in give and take and am happy to do all required to complete any assignment. It seems reasonable that effort beyond the standard ought to be compensated.

Just in case you wondered, I do love my job. It is easy to become disenchanted with the politics and legalities.

My biggest beef is working with people who do not understand or love what earns us our paychecks. That is aviation. It makes me sad to work with people who are experts at their particular segment of the industry, but can't appreciate the bigger picture. I feel that if aviation feeds your family, you ought to know some history, love airplanes, and have a fundamental understanding of what makes them fly.

Another rant.......

Even with keeping the miles, having to be away from your family for the weekend traveling without any additional compensation over and above your salary seems very unfair. I suppose it is built in to the salary and the expectation of future income potential in terms of rising up the corporate ladder but still...

Then again if you are like FlyAAway I suppose the old Confucius quote applies
"Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life." http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

[This message has been edited by Mvic (edited 06-18-2000).]