EU Ruling Forces German Employers to Pay for Travel Between Meeting Points and Job Sites
Published on 07/30/2026 at 03:06 | Redaktion boerse-global.de
A European Court of Justice decision from last autumn is set to reshape how thousands of German companies calculate wages and track working hours. The ruling, identified as case C?110/24, establishes that travel from a designated meeting point to changing work locations in a company vehicle must be classified as paid working time.
The court laid out three conditions for this classification. First, the journey must form an integral part of the professional activity. Second, the employer must define the travel framework — particularly when workers are required to gather at a fixed meeting point. Third, the employee cannot freely dispose of their time during the trip; they must remain available to the employer and able to follow instructions.
The ruling applies specifically to the leg between a company-mandated assembly point and various job sites. The ordinary commute from home to the first workplace or to the meeting point itself remains unaffected and still does not count as compensable working time.
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Millions of Workers Across Multiple Sectors Affected
The decision touches a vast number of German employees. In construction and building cleaning alone, roughly 1.8 million workers are impacted. The landscaping sector sees about 130,000 gardeners affected. In outpatient nursing care, an estimated 450,000 staff members now face a legal reassessment of their travel time. Other industries caught up in the change include skilled trades and cleaning services, where driving to different customer locations defines the daily routine.
Financial Stakes and Legal Repercussions
The monetary implications for both employees and employers are substantial. Assuming an unpaid daily travel time of 80 minutes, back-pay claims could reach up to €400 per month. This becomes especially relevant when ignoring travel time pushes wages below the statutory minimum wage, which has stood at €13.90 per hour since January 2026.
Legal experts note that the Luxembourg court’s decision may fundamentally alter Germany’s existing legal framework. The so-called “burden theory” previously applied by the Federal Labour Court (BAG) is now considered potentially obsolete. National standards must be re-evaluated against European Union law to ensure compliant working time arrangements. Companies now face pressure to update their time-tracking systems and compensation models to meet the new requirements.
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