Classification of the round-trip travel time of mobile workers

The classification of travel time (round trips) of mobile workers to and from the work sites/clients where they carry out their duties as working time.

A mobile worker is an employee who, due to the specific nature of the job, has a mobility clause included in their individual employment contract. In practice, this clause typically states whether the employee will normally perform their duties in a single location (for example, at the employer’s headquarters), within a specific defined area (a geographical zone such as a metropolitan area, county, region, or branches, construction sites, work points), or in localities other than the one where the employer is based.

In this regard, attention must be paid to a commonly used formulation by employers concerning the workplace clause, such as:
“The employee’s activity shall be carried out at the headquarters…, or at any other work point established by the employer.”

Such wording suggests that we may be dealing with a mobility clause—that is, the employee does not have a fixed workplace. At the same time, this formulation lacks a mandatory element of the mobility clause: the amount of additional benefits in money or the forms of additional benefits in kind to which the mobile worker is entitled.

It is important to note that a mobile worker performing activities in locations determined by the mobility clause is NOT subject to a unilateral modification of their workplace by the employer in the form of delegation or secondment. Therefore, they are not entitled to the per diem/secondment allowance, accommodation, and transport benefits provided under Article 44(2) and Article 47(4) of the Labor Code.

Thus, the performance of work by a mobile worker in locations defined by the mobility clause is neither subject to time limitations nor conditioned on the employee’s consent.

Recently, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) issued a judgment on 9 October 2025 in Case C-110/24 – STAS-IV v. VAERSA, which provides additional clarifications regarding the working time of mobile workers, supplementing the doctrine already established by the CJEU Judgment of 10 September 2015 in Case C-266/14 – Federación de Servicios Privados del sindicato Comisiones Obreras (CC.OO.) v. Tyco Integrated Security SL and Tyco Integrated Fire & Security Corporation Servicios SA.

What doctrine has been established by the Court of Justice of the European Union regarding the working time of mobile workers?

Starting from the premise that working time is any period during which the worker is at the workplace, at the employer’s disposal, and carrying out their activity or duties—according to Article 2 of Directive 2003/88/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 4 November 2003 on certain aspects of the organization of working time—the Court of Justice of the European Union examines the simultaneous fulfillment of these three elements.

• Short Presentation

A mobile worker travels back and forth using their own means of transportation to the base, and from the base they are transported back and forth with a vehicle provided by the employer, together with other workers, to the construction sites.

• The Question

Is the round-trip time between the base and the construction sites considered working time?

• The Court’s Analysis from the Perspective of the Three Defining Elements of Working Time

Being at the employer’s disposal:
The workers concerned are required to follow their employer’s instructions. Specifically, the employer requires the staff to meet at the base—whose location is determined by the employer—at a set time to travel together, in a vehicle belonging to that employer and driven by one of its workers, to the respective site.

Carrying out the activity or duties:
The round-trip travel from the base to the construction sites is the necessary tool for performing the activities/duties at those sites, as defined by the CJEU Judgment of 10 September 2015, Case C-266/14.

Workplace:
A worker who no longer has a fixed place of work performs their duties during the travel to and from the construction site. Therefore, the worker must be considered to be at the workplace during this travel.

• The Court’s Conclusion

The time dedicated to the mandatory round-trip routes that workers are required to take together, at a time set by their employer and in a vehicle belonging to that employer, in order to travel from a specific location determined by the employer to the place where the characteristic activity under their employment contract is carried out, must be regarded as “working time.”