The Tyco ruling: an ECJ judgement that’s good news for carers and travelling salesmen

Publication: Lawyer2B

A judgement from the European Court of Justice (ECJ) last month ruled that for those who do not have a fixed office, time spent travelling to and from the first and last work related appointment of the day is to be considered “working time”, and would count towards the 48-hour working week.

Under the Working Time Directive (“WTD”), workers cannot work more than an average of 48 hours in a week, unless they opt out of this requirement.

In the UK, time spent travelling “to and from work” and “travelling outside normal working hours” previously did not count towards as working time, but in the case of Tyco, the ECJ ruled that in certain circumstances, travelling would count as “work”. Under the WTD workers are also entitled to a 20 minute rest break after six hours of work.

In Tyco, following the closure of the company’s regional offices in Spain 2011, workers were required to travel from their homes to their clients’ premises to install security systems, with some workers driving for up to three hours…

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