WORKERS who travel from the office to work sites must now be paid for those travel hours following a new EU court ruling.
The decision follows a legal dispute in Valencia.
The case involved biodiversity workers in a dispute with VAERSA, the state-owned company responsible for managing Valencia’s protected natural areas.
Each morning, crews arrive at a local base by 8am, load tools into VAERSA trucks and travel to remote work sites across Valencia, Castellon and Alicante.
At the end of the day, finishing at 3pm, they return to the base before heading home.
The outbound journey counted as official working hours, but the return journey at the end of a shift did not.
Workers raised the issue with the Spanish courts, but they could not reach a conclusion.
The Valencia High Court asked the EU’s Court of Justice in Luxembourg to rule on the matter.
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They said that ‘working time means any period during which the worker is working, at the employer’s disposal and carrying out his activity or duties’ and thus, both legs should be compensated.
The ruling ensures that workers who travel for their jobs are paid for their time and protected under the law.
This decision is likely to influence courts and employers across Europe as they reassess what counts as on-the-job time in a workforce that is increasingly on the move.
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