European Court ruling is welcome protection against excessive working hours, says TUC

10 September 2015

The TUC has welcomed a ruling today (Thursday) by the European Court of Justice on working time and a worker’s travel between their home and a customer of their employer.

The ruling affects workers with no ‘fixed or habitual’ place of work. It requires a worker’s travel time between home and their first and last customer appointments in a working day to be considered in relation to the 48 hour maximum working week (under the Working Time Directive).

The matter was referred to the European Court of Justice by the Spanish National High court. The specific case regards a Spanish security installation firm, Tyco, which was not counting the journeys its workers made from their homes to customers’ premises – journeys that were taking up to as much as 15 hours a week.

The ruling does not affect people’s daily commute to their normal place of work.

TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady said:

“Many bosses are already fair-minded about travel time for journeys to customers. But this sensible ruling will prevent unscrupulous employers opening up a loophole to force some staff to work upwards of 60 hours a week.”

NOTES TO EDITORS:

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