EU Ruling on Travel Time Pay Could Reshape Payroll for Millions of German Workers
Published on 07/22/2026 at 16:04 | Redaktion boerse-global.de
A landmark decision from the European Court of Justice (ECJ) is forcing German employers to rethink how they classify and compensate employee travel time. The court ruled that workers who drive directly from home to a client site or construction site in a company vehicle are engaged in paid work—provided the employer sets the conditions, such as the meeting point, the vehicle, or the route.
Under those circumstances, employees cannot freely manage their time. The travel is classified as “third-party-benefiting activity,” making it part of the worker’s core duties. The ruling has immediate implications for payroll calculations across multiple industries.
More Than Two Million Workers Affected
Sectors including construction, skilled trades, nursing, and cleaning services face the biggest adjustments. Estimates suggest over two million employees in Germany are directly impacted. Business trips involving check-in times and waiting periods during on-call duty also fall under the new definition.
Legal experts stress that travel time to changing work locations must generally be compensated when the employer organizes it. That shift has direct consequences for how companies calculate wages.
Speaking of compliance with changing work conditions—UK employers face their own set of duties under the Health & Safety at Work Act 1974. A free toolkit provides nine ready-to-use tools including risk assessments and director liability guides to help you stay compliant. Get the free Health & Safety at Work Act 1974 Toolkit
When Hourly Pay Dips Below the Minimum Wage
Treating travel time as working time directly affects Germany’s statutory minimum wage, which has stood at €13.90 per hour since January 1, 2026. If travel time goes unpaid, a worker’s effective hourly rate can fall below that threshold.
Consider a painter who drives 80 minutes daily to a construction site and is paid for 7.5 hours of work. Under a typical pay model, that worker earns roughly €104.25 per day. Adding the travel time drops the actual hourly wage to €11.81—well below the legal minimum. Each workday could generate back-pay claims of €15 to €20.
Watch the Deadlines—Claims Can Expire
Employees seeking back pay or overtime must act quickly. The standard statute of limitations is three years. However, many employment contracts and collective bargaining agreements include shorter exclusion periods—often just three to six months.
Once those deadlines pass, claims are permanently forfeited, even if the working time was misclassified. For the 2024 calendar year, back payments may still be possible in some cases, provided no valid exclusion periods apply. For employers, the risk is significant: flat-rate compensation models that ignore travel time could constitute systematic underpayment.
Related Court Rulings: Pay Increases and Hygiene Clothing
Beyond travel time, German courts have been active on other compensation issues. The Federal Labor Court (BAG) already ruled that employers can offset above-tariff salary components against collectively bargained pay increases, as long as the new tariff wage does not exceed the previous effective salary.
Another BAG decision from 2016 addressed work equipment. Employers in food-processing facilities must cover the cleaning costs for legally required hygiene clothing. Deductions from net pay are not permitted. For sanitation cleaning, the court clarified that workers are entitled to industry-specific tariff wages only if the company primarily performs cleaning services. Otherwise, the general minimum wage applies.
Staying on top of workplace regulations means having the right documentation in place. A comprehensive Health & Safety Toolkit gives you risk assessments, checklists, and toolbox talks that cover key UK requirements—all available for an instant free download. Download the free Health & Safety Toolkit
2026 Working Time Reform: Electronic Tracking Becomes Mandatory
Germany is tightening its documentation rules. The planned 2026 working time reform requires minute-precise electronic recording of start, end, and duration of work—including breaks and overtime. Records must be kept for two years.
The rigid eight-hour day is set to be replaced by a weekly maximum of 48 hours. Temporarily, daily shifts of up to 12 hours will be allowed.
A coalition resolution passed on July 2, 2026, introduces further changes. Among them: a requirement for sick notes starting from the first day of illness. For fixed-term contracts, the rules for contracts without a specific reason will be expanded to up to four years with six renewal options—initially valid until December 31, 2030.
High earners with annual gross salaries of roughly €177,500 or more may see relaxed dismissal protection. Employers could more easily terminate such contracts with a severance payment.
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