Is business travel time working time?

There are many factors dictating whether or not an employee must be com­pensated for travel hours during a business trip in the UK. These factors include le­gis­la­tion, terms of contract and labour agree­ments. While it may seem unfair that workers are not routinely com­pensated for traveling time on business trips they are un­der­tak­ing at the behest of the company, it is often the norm. This can have a tough impact on the payslips of employees who are required to travel for work fre­quently, es­pe­cially abroad since travel times can last many hours. It also dis­pro­por­tion­ately affects higher earners, since those in more senior positions are often the ones required to attend con­fer­ences and meetings with clients to represent their company.

In recent years, several other countries have ex­per­i­enced court rulings deeming business travel time to count as working time. While the UK has much more relaxed labour laws than some other countries, it is important to be aware of the dif­fer­ences in working time reg­u­la­tions if you are running a company that operates in multiple countries.

In the UK, the re­mu­ner­a­tion of travel times for business trips is regulated in­di­vidu­ally. If you have a generous employer, they are likely to consider travel time on business trips to be working time and com­pensate you as such: i.e. the entire business trip is con­sidered to be working time. However, these agree­ments usually have to be ne­go­ti­ated sep­ar­ately. If one is applying for a job that is known to have high levels of work travel time, it is re­com­men­ded to negotiate the terms of business trips and legally enshrine them in the in­di­vidu­als‘ working contract from the very beginning to avoid any confusion. In some companies, working time during business trips is already outlined in labour agree­ments and col­lect­ive agree­ments and may apply ac­cord­ingly to all or only certain employees. In the UK, travel to and from clients is generally con­sidered to be working time.

However, there are many instances when no legal rules apply to whether or not travel times are con­sidered working time and whether these periods should be com­pensated, and by how much. In practice, the case is usually that the only hours which count as working time are the same hours the employee would normally work, e.g. 9 am to 5 pm. This means that if a business trip flight lasts three hours and begins at 7 am, the employee would be com­pensated for the final hour of 9-10 am since this falls within their normal working hours, but the first two hours are unpaid. However, if your work superiors request that you spend the flight doing work (e.g. preparing present­a­tion slides or cor­res­pond­ing via e-mail), then those hours can be con­sidered overtime.

There are certain ex­cep­tions to these rules if a worker’s activity consists of a sig­ni­fic­ant amount travel time (i.e. a primary ob­lig­a­tion), such as truck drivers or traveling salespeople. Companies may also have differing policies for domestic and foreign travel.

Another factor which may impact re­mu­ner­a­tion for an employee during business travel time is whether or not they are covered by the Working Time Reg­u­la­tions. The reg­u­la­tions stipulate that time spent commuting to and from work is generally not con­sidered

to be working time. Although the reg­u­la­tions are unclear on time spent trav­el­ling abroad, a ruling by the European Court of Justice in 2015 stip­u­lated that mobile workers – those without a fixed place of work – must be con­sidered to be working when trav­el­ling to and from clients or sites. In other words, employees trav­el­ling between ap­point­ments must be com­pensated for the time spent trav­el­ling.

Employers should also take account of how travel affects the total working time of an in­di­vidu­al. Unless an employee has signed an opt-out agreement, they should not work more than 48 hours per week without receiving com­pens­a­tion.

Case study 1:

A delivery service driver has a con­trac­tu­ally stip­u­lated working time of 6 am to 2:30 pm daily. At 6 am, they pick up their service vehicle from the company garage and drive to the central warehouse, where the vehicle is loaded with goods from 6:30 am. After the final delivery at 2:30 pm, the driver drives back to the company premises, where they cannot park their vehicle until 4 pm due to heavy traffic at the parking lot. In this case, the total working time from 6 am to 4 pm could be con­sidered working time, since the employee would not be able to carry out their work duties without the travel time. It can, therefore, be con­sidered the main ob­lig­a­tion.

Case study 2:

An insurance company employee is sent out to meet with a client who, due to un­fore­seen cir­cum­stances, is unable to come to the insurance company office. Meeting clients outside the office is generally outside of the employee’s remit. The employee’s usual work hours are between 8 am and 5 pm. The client meeting lasts from 4 pm to 5:30 pm, and then the employee drives straight home without first returning to work.

In this instance, only the 30 minutes spent meeting the customer count as work overtime. The return journey is not con­sidered working time since the employee is returning home instead of back to work. If the employee’s manager had contacted them and requested that they return to the office to work late and write an ad­di­tion­al report about the meeting, then the drive back to the office would have been con­sidered working time, and been com­pensated ac­cord­ingly.

Please note the legal dis­claim­er relating to this article.