If you're based in Europe, then you might like to know that the European Court of Justice has ruled that travel time is work time -- if you're an employee without a "fixed" work location such as a regional office, that is.
EU employers who have mobile employees "in the field" during the work day may no longer be able to claim that the work day starts only when employees reach their first scheduled appointment of the day.
Likewise, EU employers may no longer be able to say that employees are off the clock as soon as the last appointment of the day ends.
One of the goals of the ruling, as reported today by the BBC, is to make sure that employees in the EU don't feel "obliged" to average more than 48 hours on the job per week. Yes, you read that number correctly, U.S. employees. Hey, Rome wasn't built in a day.
Needless to say, there's concern over the ruling's potential added burden on EU employers, who may suddenly find themselves out of compliance.
If your company has sales, maintenance or a variety of other "in the field" operations in Europe performed by "casually"-dressed employees in stylish scarves and fitted leather jackets, then you might be interested in this trending workplace news nugget from across the pond.
Okay, I'll let you get back to your 75-hour work week.
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