Time spent at seminar should be paid.

Byline: ON THE JOB by Bureau of Labor and Industries For The Register-Guard

Question: We run a medical clinic, and lately our workplace has been full of gossip and hard feelings. This is obviously affecting morale, which in turn affects our quality of patient services. To counteract this and also to give our staff a "perk," we have arranged for all of our employees to fly to Atlanta to attend a team-building seminar sponsored by our corporate headquarters.

While we have told our employees that they are not required to attend this function, the clinic is paying for most of the travel expenses. This includes airplane tickets, hotel accommodations, a few sponsored group meals, and drinks and hors d'oeuvre at a greeting reception upon arrival. Employees also will be allowed some free time to explore the city on their own.

Since this trip is optional and supposed to be fun, must the employees be paid for time spent attending the seminar, group meals and other gatherings once they get there? Also, do we pay employees for the time spent traveling to and from Atlanta?

Answer: You should pay employees for the time they spend at company functions once they opt to go to the seminar in Atlanta. You also should pay employees for any travel time that occurs during regular work hours (which applies seven days a week even if the employee usually does not work seven days a week). Travel expenses need not be paid or reimbursed unless an employee's payment of expenses causes the employee's pay to dip below minimum wage.

An employer does not have to pay for time spent in lectures, meetings or training programs if the following four criteria are met: (1) attendance is outside regular working hours; (2) attendance is voluntary; (3) the training session or meeting is not directly related to an employee's current job; and (4) the employee performs no productive work during the training.

To satisfy the first requirement, it may be possible to schedule the seminar sessions and gatherings so that they don't occur during regular working hours (although a "team-building" session at 2 a.m. seems a bit counterproductive).

To comply with the second requirement, supervisors must make it very clear to employees that their attendance is, in fact, strictly voluntary. This can be done through memos, announcements at staff meetings, etc. Be sure all of your supervisors understand the importance of making this abundantly clear, without any winks, nods or other nonverbal communication (it sounds as if you have enough of that in your office already).

Your problem will come in trying to satisfy the third requirement. Although having good team-building skills may seem like merely an incidental part of the job, you've indicated how the lack of a positive work atmosphere is affecting everyone in your clinic.

For that reason alone, it would be very hard to justify not paying your employees for the time spent attending the seminar. This would be the case even if the employees did not technically perform any productive work while attending the seminar (the fourth requirement). Team-building pays off in terms of increased productivity - presumably that is why you are investing in it.

In the case of dinners or other social functions while on the trip to Atlanta, it would be acceptable to pay employees only for the portion of the event during which attendance is required, for example, the first hour (or however long it takes to have the meal) of a dinner, then allow employees to choose whether to leave the event or to stay and mingle, dance or otherwise continue socializing with other attendees.

As for the travel time, only that which cuts across an employee's normal work hours is paid time (which applies seven days a week in this context). This rule applies when travel keeps an employee away from home overnight - unless the employee is a driver instead of a passenger. Travel time must be paid when the employee is required to drive, regardless of whether the travel occurs during regular work hours.

There are a few limited exceptions to the above requirements. For information on them, go to our Web site at www.oregon.gov/boli/ta.

On The Job is written by the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries staff. Write to BOLI, 800 N.E. Oregon St., No. 32, Portland, OR 97232.