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Travelling to and from work (mobile workers)
[ch 4: pages 115-116]Time spent travelling to and from the first and last appointment of the day for a mobile worker who is issued with a daily schedule of appointments is working time (Federacion de Servicios Privados del Sindicato Comisiones Obreras v Tyco Integrated Security s.l. [2015] EUEJC C-266/14). It is working time because when travelling, the mobile worker is at the disposal of the employer, “carrying out [the employer’s] activities and duties” and “working”:
A group of Spanish mobile workers were engaged as installation technicians. They had no fixed premises, and worked installing equipment at customers’ premises. They were given a vehicle and travelled each day from their own homes to the locations where they were instructed to install the equipment, sometimes 100 kilometres away. The engineers argued that that they were working during this journey, but the employer argued that this travel time was a “rest period”. The ECJ disagreed, emphasising the health and safety purpose of the Working Time Directive. The employer also argued that the travel time could not be working time because the engineers were free to decide on their route, but the ECJ disagreed, pointing out that the travel time could not be shortened, or used by the technicians for their own purposes. It was working time. The rate of pay for this travel time could be decided under the contract of employment, said the ECJ, subject to the need to pay the national minimum wage.
Federacion de Servicios Privados del sindicato Comisiones obreras v Tyco Integrated Security SL [2015] EUECJ C-266/14