Time taken to reach office in traffic to be counted as office hours, rules a European court

Next time your boss asks you to come to office early to avoid traffic jam, the people of the UK has an answer to it. But if you are in India, engrossed in interacting with clients and meeting deadlines, there is no respite any time soon.

A recent verdict at the European Court of Justice has given the employees across the US a moment to rejoice.

The rule says that the time taken for the employee to reach office from home and returning home from office would be considered as ‘work hour’. The verdict comes in the wake of a case in Spain where Tyco, a security system company, had shut its regional offices that resulted in employees taking too long to reach the head office.

In most companies, employees related to jobs of sales, marketing, emergency services and customer services have to spend more than stipulated working hours as in most cases they need to travel in city traffic. At a time when traffic jams are becoming a woe for the people, employers are often seen deducting pays of the employees for reporting late at assignments.

While employees welcomed this verdict with much fanfare, thousands of employers across the UK wouldn’t be much happy as this would leave them at a breach of working time regulations there.

The EU gave this verdict to ensure that work-time of average 48 hours a week needs to be obliged by the employers, which has a direct effect on an employee’s health.