My work moved office. Why won’t they pay for my travel costs?

The company I work for has just undergone a major change. This has affected my role, and I’m now being asked to travel much further every week than I did previously. This has led to very substantial extra travel costs for me. I asked if I could be reimbursed in some way (I suggested several options) and was told no. The reason I was given was that if it was done for me, it would need to be done for others in my situation.

I don’t see this situation changing in the new year. What are my options or rights to fix the situation where I am actually significantly out of pocket?

My first instinct after reading your question was that this is extremely unfair. I only felt that was more true after our further correspondence.

Your employer has entrusted you with the job of smoothing part of a major organisational shift. In the process, they’ve asked you to travel much further than you once did, entirely at your own expense. The idea that you deserve zero compensation to reflect this new situation is, on the face of it, absurd.

“If we do it for you, we’d need to do it for everyone else” might be an understandable explanation if you were asking for an air-conditioned running track inside your office (as, possibly apocryphally, Mick Jagger once did before appearing at Coachella one year). For something like this, though, it’s laughably solipsistic reasoning – or, as you kids would say, that’s a them problem, not a you problem.

However, my own lay opinion is entirely separate from the question of what the law says about your predicament. I asked Joellen Riley Munton, an expert in workplace law, and Professor Emerita at the University of Sydney, about your concerns.

If they refuse to budge, perhaps now is the time to take your excellent skills and reputation elsewhere

She said that, as always when it comes to legal questions, the devil is in the detail. And the most germane detail in this instance is precisely what travel has increased. If you’re being asked to drive from your home to a new premise and back, your options may be limited.

“Businesses that have several locations, and move staff around periodically often face problems when employees do not want to work at the new location. The question then becomes, does the employee’s contract of employment contemplate such a move? If not, the employee can make an argument that their original employment contract has been terminated by the employer. This would allow them to claim payment for a period of notice and leave the job.”