The European Court of Justice (ECJ) has ruled that the first and last journeys made by mobile workers should be considered as 'working time', and should therefore be paid.
The case relates to a Spanish-based security company called Tyco Integrated Security SL. The firm's technicians use company vehicles to travel to appointments across Spain, but the employer does not treat the first journey of the day (from home to the first appointment) or the last journey of the day (from the last appointment to home), as 'working time'. Instead they regard this travel time as “rest time” under the Working Time Directive.
The Advocate General (AG) said that the travel time should be classified as working time.
The ECJ has agreed and declared that where workers do not have a fixed or habitual place of work, the time spent travelling each day between their homes and the premises of the first and last customers designated by their employer constitutes “working time” within the meaning of the Directive. Workers in such a situation should therefore be considered to be carrying out their duties over the whole duration of those journeys.