Travel Time Ruling Could Mean Hundreds in Back Pay for Mobile Workers Across Europe

A landmark decision from the European Court of Justice (ECJ) this autumn has redefined when travel in a company vehicle counts as paid working time, potentially triggering retroactive wage claims for millions of employees. The ruling (Case C-110/24) applies to journeys from a fixed meeting point to changing work sites — both outward and return trips — and is already reshaping pay practices in sectors from construction to home care.

Three Conditions That Trigger the Clock

The Luxembourg-based court established a clear test for when travel time must be treated as work. First, the journey must form an integral part of the employee’s professional duties. Second, the employer must dictate the meeting point, the vehicle and the departure time. Third, the worker must not be free to use that time as they wish during the trip.

EU law recognises only two categories — working time or rest time — with no middle ground. This puts significant pressure on Germany’s long-standing “burden theory” (Belastungstheorie) used by the Federal Labour Court, which previously allowed employers to treat travel differently depending on whether the issue was health protection, pay or co-determination rights. Under the old German system, three separate definitions of working time coexisted: one for daily health limits (maximum eight hours), one for compensation, and one for works council involvement. The ECJ’s ruling effectively collapses these distinctions.

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Mindestlohn Floor Now Harder to Avoid

While the judgment does not automatically force employers to raise contractual pay for travel time, it sets a hard minimum: the statutory minimum wage. As of January 2026, that stands at €13.90 per hour. Once travel time is included in total working hours, the effective hourly rate cannot dip below that threshold.

A simple calculation shows the problem. Consider a worker who spends 80 minutes each day driving between a company meeting point and various job sites, plus 7.5 hours of productive on-site work. If only the on-site time is paid, the effective hourly wage drops to €11.81 — well under the €13.90 minimum.

Industries with mobile teams are most exposed: construction, building cleaning, landscaping, home nursing and IT field service all rely on workers who start their day at a depot or parking lot before fanning out to different locations.

Back Pay and Time Limits

For individual employees, the financial stakes are significant. Legal experts estimate monthly back-pay claims could reach up to €400 for those who have been underpaid for travel time over recent years. Lawyers are urging workers in affected sectors to audit their own situations promptly, paying close attention to contractual or collective-bargaining deadlines that could block claims if missed.

The ruling does not touch the ordinary commute. Driving from home to a fixed, permanent workplace remains unaffected. The ECJ’s decision is narrowly focused on trips from an employer-mandated assembly point to constantly changing work locations — a distinction that will now force many German companies to rethink how they log and compensate their mobile workforce.

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