Now you can get paid to drive to the first job of the day after Euro Court’s ruling
CARERS, plumbers and sales reps could get a shorter working week following a ruling from the European Court of Justice.
Time spent travelling to and from first and last appointments by workers without a fixed office should be regarded as working time, the court ruled.
The ruling – made to uphold the 48-hour working week across the EU – came after a Spanish firm told staff to drive from home to their first appointment, a journey that could take up to three hours.
Previously time spent travelling in the working day has not been considered as work.
But the Irish Small and Medium Enterprises association said the ruling would put pressure on employers.
Its chief executive, Mark Fielding, said: ‘The decision will put further pressure on employers giving their employees shifts nearer to their homes and to schedule calls close to where they live.’ He said travel time was often agreed with employees before they started a job, saying: ‘Some even pay their employees for starting at 8am even if they don’t actually start working until 8.30am.
‘It is already acknowledged by some companies. Ninety-nine per cent of the time, there is give and take between employers and their employees. That’s the way I see it.’
The EU ruling is binding here. It came after a legal case involving a security firm in Spain.
The firm shut its regional offices in Spain in 2011. Staff must now travel from home for the first appointment of the day, which is sometimes a three-hour drive.
Previously, their working day did not start until they arrived at a regional office where they got appointments for the day.
IBEC, which represents Irish business, has said careful consideration must be given to employ- ers with workers travelling to a variety of locations during the working day.
Its head of employment law services, Rhona Murphy, said: ‘There may be certain circumstances which merit closer examination as to whether a relevant period of travel time in fact constitutes working time.’
The judgment excludes the self-employed who are not covered by the EU’s working time directive on the maximum time employees can spend at work on average.
Responding to the ruling, the Department of Jobs and Enterprise said: ‘It would be a matter for our employment rights bodies and courts to determine any similar cases brought before them in accordance with the court’s ruling.
‘The ruling will have implications for employers who have field-based employees with no fixed place of work, where those employers do not already recognise time spent travelling to and from first/last customers as “working time.”’