Conditions and entitlements for apprentices vary from award to award.

If an apprentice has to attend block release training and stay overnight, many awards say that their employer must pay the excess reasonable travel costs to and from training.

Check the award to see what applies in each industry.

What's included?

Excess reasonable travel costs include:

• accommodation costs where necessary
• the total cost of reasonable transportation
• reasonable expenses including meals.

They don’t include:

• payment for travelling time
• expenses when the apprentice wasn’t travelling to and from training.

Example

Sanjar is an electrotechnology apprentice. He lives in a remote area in the Northern Territory and attends block release training in Darwin.

There’s a bus that runs from Sanjar’s town to Darwin, but it takes 2 days to get there. His training runs for one week.

While Sanjar is travelling to and from Darwin, his employer pays for the following expenses:

• accommodation for one night
• bus fares
• meals, snacks and drinks.

Sanjar’s employer doesn’t pay for his accommodation or meals in Darwin, and Sanjar pays for his own transport from his accommodation to the training organisation.

Are these costs always paid?

No.

Employers don’t have to pay excess reasonable travel costs if:

• the apprentice could have attended a training organisation closer to their normal place of work
• the employer didn’t agree to the more distant training organisation.

Can the costs be reduced?

Yes.

The costs can be reduced if an apprentice is eligible to get assistance for travel costs to block release training under a government assistance scheme and:

• the apprentice has been paid this amount, or
• the employer has told the apprentice about the payments in writing.