11 Sep European Court of Justice Ruling on Working Time
The European Court of Justice ruled on 10th September that time spent travelling to and from the first and last appointments of your working day counts as working time under the Working Time Directive. This ruling could have significant implications for companies that employ mobile workers, who spend a lot of time travelling between appointments.
The judgement covers workers who do not have a fixed or regular place of work and ruled that the time spent by those workers travelling each day between their homes and the premises of the first and last customers constitutes ‘working time’ under the directive.
What are the implications of this new ruling?
This new ruling may have massive implications for employers, both in terms of managing the working hours of your staff, and for both pay and holiday pay. We have summed up key information about this new ruling below:
- Counting travel to and from the first and last appointment of the day, employees could easily exceed the 48 hour weekly maximum (under the directive) and employers could therefore find that they are operating illegally and at risk of claims and fines.
- If the time counts as working time, it therefore follows that the employees should be paid as well.
- Employers should check that the increased hours don’t bring the total pay under the National Minimum Wage rates.
- These extra hours will mean more holiday pay and employers will need to budget for this, and ensure their staff are allocated the correct statutory holiday pay.
- The Working Time Directive falls under Health and Safety regulations, and so employees do not need to have two years employment to take a case to tribunal.
Please contact Jo today on 01258 480 746 for more information and for advice on how this may impact on your business.