EU court rules travelling to work 'is work' for employees with no fixed office
Large numbers of workers could be entitled to more pay or a reduction in hours due to a ruling by the European Court of Justice. The ECJ has ruled that time spent travelling to the first and from the last appointments by workers without a fixed office should be regarded as working time.
The adjudication comes in a case brought by the Spanish trade union workers at the security firm Tyco. However, because the ruling covers the European Union working time directive, it is expected to affect workers across the bloc. The court said its judgement was about protecting the "health and safety" of workers as set out in the European Union's working time directive. One of its main goals is to ensure that no employee in the EU is obliged to work more than an average of 48 hours a week.
The British government tried to intervene in the case, arguing that allowing travelling time to be counted as working time would lead to substantially higher business costs. However the European court dismissed this argument and sided with the Spanish employees. This means time spent by tradesmen, sales representatives and carers driving to their first job of the day and home from the last job of the day will count as time spent in work. The ruling has angered some business groups such as Business for Britain who argue European courts are too powerful and have too much influence over British affairs.
The court ruling said: "The fact that the workers begin and finish the journeys at their homes stems directly from the decision of their employer to abolish the regional offices and not from the desire of the workers themselves.
"Requiring them to bear the burden of their employer's choice would be contrary to the objective of protecting the safety and health of workers pursued by the directive, which includes the necessity of guaranteeing workers a minimum rest period."
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