ExpertLaw.com Forums

Can I Sue My Employer for Failing to Reimburse Me for Mileage

Printable View

  • 03-27-2019, 02:28 PM
    Fenris
    Can I Sue My Employer for Failing to Reimburse Me for Mileage
    My question involves labor and employment law for the state of: CA

    Basically, I drive my car to client sites for work and get reimbursed for that. Last year my boss told me that I am not entitled to "commute" reimbursement. Which she described as the distance I would drive if I were to be working out of our corporate office.

    For example, I live 25 miles away from our corporate office, if a client is 60 miles from my home I am only to receive reimbursement on the difference which is 35 miles.

    However, I recently read the corporate policy regarding business expenses and it says I am entitled to reimbursement on the full mileage.

    So I've been getting scammed out of hundreds if not thousands of dollars. What should be my next step. I haven't told anybody about what I discovered, and I'm not sure if I should tell my boss or HR or just find a lawyer.

    For the record, my boss isn't exactly all that trustworthy and tends to get rather emotional and defensive when I talk to them about my money, so I'm not sure if I should even mention this.
  • 03-27-2019, 02:48 PM
    Taxing Matters
    Re: Can I Sue My Employer for Failing to Reimburse Me
    In California the law requires an employer to reimburse the employee for the expenses the employee incurs doing the job. However, generally commuting between your home and work is not a business expense for which the employer needs to reimburse you. So your trips from home to the company office would not be something that the employer must reimburse you for. The extent to which the employer must reimburse you for trips form home to a temporary worksite is something that you may want to ask the California Labor and Workforce Development Agency or a labor law attorney.

    Once you know exactly what the law requires the employer to pay for you need to raise the issue with your employer. You won't get it unless you ask for it. And since you have the right to reimbursement under the law, the employer is obligated to pay for regardless of whether your boss gets bent out of shape over it.
  • 03-27-2019, 03:23 PM
    pg1067
    Re: Can I Sue My Employer for Failing to Reimburse Me
    I can't begin to conceive why you would do anything other than talk with your boss and/or HR about why he said what he said in light of the "corporate policy" you read.

    FWIW, deducting the number of miles in your normal daily commute is standard practice and completely consistent with California law.
  • 03-27-2019, 03:54 PM
    Fenris
    Re: Can I Sue My Employer for Failing to Reimburse Me
    Because if I did my boss would lose her mind. She's a loose cannon and this will set her off.

    This is directly from the policy:"If the employee travels directly to a
    customer’s place of business or to a seminar for the entire business day,
    the full amount of the mileage traveled qualifies as business mileage and
    may be claimed for reimbursement."
  • 03-27-2019, 04:16 PM
    adjusterjack
    Re: Can I Sue My Employer for Failing to Reimburse Me
    Quote:

    Quoting Fenris
    View Post
    Because if I did my boss would lose her mind. She's a loose cannon and this will set her off.

    Well, then I guess you have a choice to make. Give up the money because you are afraid that she will go bat-crap-crazy, or get your vorpal sword and face down your manxsome foe.

    (Thank you, Lewis Carroll.)
  • 03-27-2019, 04:48 PM
    llworking
    Re: Can I Sue My Employer for Failing to Reimburse Me
    Quote:

    Quoting adjusterjack
    View Post
    Well, then I guess you have a choice to make. Give up the money because you are afraid that she will go bat-crap-crazy, or get your vorpal sword and face down your manxsome foe.

    (Thank you, Lewis Carroll.)

    Well, if she goes bat-crap-crazy she will likely look for a reason to let him go. So, if he likes the job and is paid well, he needs to consider that.
  • 03-27-2019, 06:28 PM
    Guybrush
    Re: Can I Sue My Employer for Failing to Reimburse Me
    Quote:

    Quoting Taxing Matters
    View Post

    Once you know exactly what the law requires the employer to pay for you need to raise the issue with your employer. You won't get it unless you ask for it. And since you have the right to reimbursement under the law, the employer is obligated to pay for regardless of whether your boss gets bent out of shape over it.

    OP didn't say they were violating CA law, he said they violated corporate policy.
  • 03-28-2019, 07:27 AM
    DAWW
    Re: Can I Sue My Employer for Failing to Reimburse Me
    And the quote from the corporate policy could be taken to mean the one way trip to the customer's site only, since it does not actually mention the rest of the commute home. And since CA law/rules are very clear that they do not include commutes, at best the employee has an ambiguous policy that the employer is not going to read the same way they are. In the absence of a more clearly worded policy, any judge or ALJ is likely to follow CA law/rules here.

    Is this the hill the employee wants to die on?
  • 03-28-2019, 07:52 AM
    PayrolGuy
    Re: Can I Sue My Employer for Failing to Reimburse Me
    I disagree re: the policy. It seems pretty clear as to the intent of the policy is that the company will reimburse as the OP thinks they should.

    There is a difference between the company policy and the CA law on the issue. The policy pays more than the state requires.

    @Fenris , is your boss, that you are concerned about, the final word at your company on this? As in are they the owner?
  • 03-28-2019, 09:27 AM
    pg1067
    Re: Can I Sue My Employer for Failing to Reimburse Me
    Quote:

    Quoting Fenris
    View Post
    This is directly from the policy:"If the employee travels directly to a
    customer’s place of business or to a seminar for the entire business day,
    the full amount of the mileage traveled qualifies as business mileage and
    may be claimed for reimbursement."

    Cool. So talk to your boss and/or HR. The alternative is to make a claim with the California Department of Labor. I suspect your boss will "lose her mind" if you do that too.
  • 03-28-2019, 03:45 PM
    comment/ator
    Re: Can I Sue My Employer for Failing to Reimburse Me
    If you call and ask the California Department of Labor, no one needs to lose their mind. You just ask, and the CADL will be glad to answer your question. Your employer need never know you called them. You explain the situation to them. They will tell you the answer. If you have the law on your side, then you certainly can speak to your employer with more authority. I honestly do not think that you do, as I have seen a lot of travel pay outs, and usually, in what I've seen, you were paid for mileage from your base workstation, rarely from your home, unless this was somehow negotiated at the time you started working at this job.

    It would be possible to have a forty mile commute from your home to the worksite, and someone else who works there have a three mile commute to the workstation. If both of these folks drive over to the other worksite in another town, should one be paid for forty miles more simply because they elect to live forty more miles from the central workstation? What if where you are going is closer to your home than your regular worksite, do you get paid less if you drive there straight from your home?

    Why not ask the folks who know all the law and ins and outs, and then, armed with information straight from the horse's mouth, you can take this up with the boss, knowing that if they cut a shine, and it comes down to asking the CA Wage and Hour to get involved, you'll be more likely to win reimbursement for travel. Even though you may be fired by this time, you know.
  • 03-28-2019, 03:58 PM
    PayrolGuy
    Re: Can I Sue My Employer for Failing to Reimburse Me
    As mentioned the company policy provides for more than state law does.
  • 03-28-2019, 04:02 PM
    Taxing Matters
    Re: Can I Sue My Employer for Failing to Reimburse Me
    Quote:

    Quoting Guybrush
    View Post
    OP didn't say they were violating CA law, he said they violated corporate policy.

    I'd be surprised in this case if the corporate policy stated that it would pay anything more than California law says it must pay given how extensive the California law is on this. In any event, the corporate policy may not be worth much. But the company must at least do what state law requires.
  • 03-28-2019, 04:39 PM
    eerelations
    Re: Can I Sue My Employer for Failing to Reimburse Me
    Quote:

    Quoting Taxing Matters
    View Post
    I'd be surprised in this case if the corporate policy stated that it would pay anything more than California law says it must pay given how extensive the California law is on this. In any event, the corporate policy may not be worth much. But the company must at least do what state law requires.

    like button
  • 03-29-2019, 07:12 AM
    PayrolGuy
    Re: Can I Sue My Employer for Failing to Reimburse Me
    Quote:

    Quoting Taxing Matters
    View Post
    I'd be surprised in this case if the corporate policy stated that it would pay anything more than California law says it must pay given how extensive the California law is on this. In any event, the corporate policy may not be worth much. But the company must at least do what state law requires.

    The OP wrote this...

    Quote:

    This is directly from the policy:"If the employee travels directly to a
    customer’s place of business or to a seminar for the entire business day,
    the full amount of the mileage traveled qualifies as business mileage and
    may be claimed for reimbursement.
    "
    That could easily be more than CA law requires.
  • 03-29-2019, 09:09 AM
    cbg
    Re: Can I Sue My Employer for Failing to Reimburse Me
    If he were in any state but CA or MA he'd be flat out of luck if his employer refused to pay mileage at all.
  • 03-29-2019, 09:51 AM
    pg1067
    Re: Can I Sue My Employer for Failing to Reimburse Me
    Quote:

    Quoting Taxing Matters
    View Post
    I'd be surprised in this case if the corporate policy stated that it would pay anything more than California law says it must pay given how extensive the California law is on this. In any event, the corporate policy may not be worth much. But the company must at least do what state law requires.

    Employers routinely pay more than California law requires for mileage reimbursement since employers typically use the IRS mileage reimbursement rate even though it is often much higher than the employee's actual per mile cost.
  • 03-29-2019, 09:54 AM
    DAWW
    Re: Can I Sue My Employer for Failing to Reimburse Me
    Agreed if we are talking state law/regulations/rules. However small claims court sometimes will enforce company policy in all states. In fact small claims court sometimes just pull the rules out of the air (or some body part). When I was at a fraternity, we had a cook who wanted a raise, and then start serving uncooked and seriously unprepared food when he did not get it. We fired him. Perfectly legal firing. We had paid his normal rate for all hours worked, even though he did not really work all those hours. We just wanted him gone. He was not that good a cook when he was not taking a job action. He wanted a big severance payment, took us to small claims court and got it, even though there is nothing in CA or federal law to support this action. Small claim courts sometimes look a lot like Wheel of Fortune. I would not assume that all small claims courts are pro-employee however. More like a random outcome generator.
All times are GMT -7. The time now is 08:09 PM.
Powered by vBulletin® Version 4.2.4
Copyright © 2023 vBulletin Solutions, Inc. All rights reserved.
Copyright © 2004 - 2018 ExpertLaw.com, All Rights Reserved