Mobile Workers’ first and last journeys count as working time

In advance of a final European Court of Justice Judgment on working time for travelling workers, the Advocate General Yves Bot has said that employers must treat journeys by workers between customers or clients as working time.

He said that this should include the first and last journeys of the day where the worker goes straight to or from the customer or client’s place of business.

While this opinion is not binding, it was made clear that he believes that, where travel is an integral part of the job, all journeys to customers or clients count as working time.

The key factor in his opinion was whether or not the workers are “at the disposal of the employer”. He concluded that, when workers travel from home to their first customer and from the last customer to their home, the workers are not outside the scope of their employer’s management power.

The full ECJ judgment is awaited.