European Court of Justice: for workers with no habitual place of work, the home – customer journey is considered working time

The European Union Court of Justice – asked to rule on the EU directive no. 2003/88 concerning working time – established with its decision on 10 September 2015 issued for case C266/14, that journeys by employees with no fixed or habitual place of work (so-called travelling workers), from their homes to that of their first or last customer, designated by the employer, fall into the case of “working hours”. The Judges decided based on the assumption that the workers, within the timeframe of their job, are at the employer’s disposal, and must follow the employer’s instructions and thus cannot pursue their own interests.