Originally written by Amy Paxton on Small Business
Your employee is confusing travelling time during work with travelling time to and from work. There is no right to be paid for time spent travelling to and from work unless this is specifically set out within the contract. The only time you would normally look at making a payment or some contribution towards travel to and from work is if you require your employee to work at a different location from usual.
The obligation on an employer is to pay an employee in respect of their actions in carrying out their work. This doesn’t include covering the costs of getting to and from work unless you have specifically agreed to do so. Any travelling you require for work, such as visiting a customer within the employee’s working hours, is time spent carrying out work under the contract and so counts towards the time the employee should be paid for but the time spent getting to work and back is his choice and responsibility, not yours. Ensuring that time spent travelling is counted towards working hours is particularly important if the employee is paid at, or very near, to the national minimum wage rate