Travel time is working time: what are the implications?

Jo Faragher

The ruling last week from the European Court of Justice that travelling to and from home to appointments should be regarded as working time is set to have a huge impact on many employers.

Any employer that has field workers such as salespeople, plumbers, gas engineers and the like will now be attempting to calculate the cost to their business. Unwittingly, those who pay salaries at the lower end of the scale could find hourly rates go below the national minimum wage (and be at risk of being exposed or even a fine), while others may find some employees are not covered by the Working Time Directive opt-out, and so are working more than the legal 48 hours per week.

Employers also can’t just assume that the new ruling won’t cover temporary staff. Under the Agency Workers Regulations, workers are entitled to the same conditions as permanent employees after 12-weeks, so will be subject to the same working time rules and wage legislation. Timings of first and last appointments of the day will need to be considered, as a long journey home could mean a worker does not receive their full 11-hour rest period, as stipulated under the WTD.

Further questions also remain, for example, how will an employer know how long someone has been travelling? Employment law experts have suggested that organizations could introduce tracking systems, but even this has data protection implications as employees will have to consent to being tracked.

Arguably a minority of employees could exploit any vagueness over time travelling to do their own thing, even though the ruling argues that they are fully at the disposal of their employer during that travelling time.

But while there may be teething problems and work to be done in complying with the new regulations, their intention is surely positive. For too long a few unscrupulous employers have docked pay for time between appointments (for example in social care), meaning workers lose out on a huge portion of potential salary. Now it’s time to get those contracts in order and make sure you’re not on the wrong side of the rules.