In a highly significant ruling, the European Court of Justice has confirmed that for workers without a fixed office, time spent travelling to and from their first and last appointments should be regarded as working time.
This could affect workers such as regional sales professionals, mobile technicians and repair workers, and carers who travel from home directly to their customers. It will apply when travelling is an essential part of the job.
The time spent travelling could account for a significant portion of an individual’s working week. If these hours now have to be included when calculating an individual’s hourly rate, it could mean that many now find themselves being paid at below the minimum wage.
Employers could also find themselves in breach of the Working Time Directive, which sets down regulations concerning the length of the working week, holiday entitlement and the frequency of breaks. One of its objectives is to ensure that no employee has to work over 48 hours a week if they don’t wish to do so. Clearly, if travelling time is now included, many workers could be exceeding this figure.
The Court’s decision is the result of a legal case in Spain, in which a security installation firm, Tyco, decided to shut its regional office in 2011. Workers now had to travel directly from their home to their first appointment. The court decided that the time spent by those workers travelling each day between their homes and the premises of the first and last customers designated by the employer constituted working time under the Working Time Directive.
What should you do?
Minimum wage
If you have any employees who spend the majority of their working time travelling on behalf of the business, you’re advised to check their average working hours (including their travel time from their homes to their first, and from their last, customers), to ensure they’re receiving the national minimum wage. Keep in mind that the National Living Wage is coming into place in April 2016 for workers aged 25 and over.
Working patterns
You may also want to consider the order in which your employees visit their clients or customers to ensure travelling time is kept to a minimum at the beginning and end of the day.
Working time
You should also consider whether, when travelling time is taken into account, a worker’s weekly working time exceeds 48 hours on average. If this is the case for any of your workers, you should ensure that they sign a working time 48-hour opt-out agreement form.
If you have any questions about how this may affect your organisation, please give us a call on 01271 859 267 or email office@fitzgeraldhr.co.uk.
