Travel time is working time for peripatetic workers

A question that often arises is whether, in the case of a worker who is not assigned to a place of work, journey time from home to the first customer and from the last customer back to home, counts as working time

Yves Bot, the Advocate General of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has stated his opinion in the Federacion de Services case, advising that time spent on these journeys is working time.

Whilst the CJEU does not have to follow the Advocate General’s recommendations it seldom decides not to, so it is almost certain that this will be upheld in by the court in due course.

This means that employers must include these journey times in the calculations of weekly working hours and pay, and factor this time when addressing workers’ rights to minimum break times.