Following the decision of the Court of Justice of the European Union in FederaciÓn de Servicios Privados del Sindicato Comisiones Obreras v Tyco Integrated Security SL and Another that time spent travelling to and from a customer’s premises at the beginning and end of the day by a worker who is not assigned to a fixed place of work constitutes working time as defined by the EU Working Time Directive (which is implemented into UK law by the Working Time Regulations 1998), the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service has updated its guidance for peripatetic workers. Key points are:
- A health and safety risk assessment for these workers should be undertaken, taking into account the fact that they will be working away from the normal work base, or will have no base, and also the type of work that will be carried out;
- Time on-call can be classed as working time in certain circumstances; and
- Time spent travelling from home to the first and last customer can count as working time.