Newsletter: ECJ confirms certain travel time as working time

In a recent case before the European Court of Justice (‘ECJ’) (C-110/24, STAS-IV vs VAERSA, 9 October 2025), the Court had the opportunity to finetune and confirm its longstanding jurisprudence on the notion of ‘working time’ as defined under art 2, 1, Directive 2003/88 concerning certain aspects of the organization of working time (‘the Directive’).

The case relates to time spent travelling by biodiversity workers, in a vehicle of the employer, as a group, from a base from which they start their working day to the natural micro-reserves, a place where they carry out their work, at a time specified by their employer. The daily return travel from the working site back to the base was not considered as working time by the employer and this position was challenged by the trade union. 

The Court analysed the concept of working time – in line with its ruling, inter alia, in the Tyco case (C-266/14, 10 September 2015) – and assessed whether the practice at hand met those criteria (which it did, subject to verifications to be carried out by the referring court).  The 3 constitutive elements to be applied read as follows:

1. the journey between the base and the actual site of work must be inextricably linked to their status as biodiversity workers and therefore inherent in the exercise of their activity, which means that they must be regarded as carrying out their activity during that travel time, 

2. during the journey back and forth, the workers are obliged to follow the instructions of their employer (and cannot use their time freely, nor shorten their journey), which means they are at the disposal of their employer, and

3. during the daily journey, the workers do not have a fixed place of work, but are carrying out their activity, and so they are to be regarded as being at work.  

The combination of these elements confirms that the journey between the base and the actual site of work is working time.  The key takeaway from this decision is how the Court clearly qualified as working time, time spent on outward and return journeys, which workers are required to take as a group at a time specified by their employer and in a vehicle belonging to that employer, in order to travel from a specific place, determined by that employer, to the place where the essential work under the contract of employment is performed. 

The issue of what constitutes working time is different from the question on how working time must be remunerated.  Indeed, the ECJ has consistently held that the Directives on working time do not encompass the question of remuneration for working time, be it stand-by or guard time or actual working time (e.g. ECJ, Case C-742/19, BK vs Rep Slovenija, 15 July 2021; Case C-344/19, Radio Televizija Slovenia, 9 March 2021).  Remuneration for time worked (as actual working time or on stand-by) remains an exclusive issue of national laws.