Court of Appeal rule that home-to-work travel is not ‘working time’ for the purposes of NMW (National Minimum Wage).
The facts
Taylor Services Ltd employed poultry technicians whose duties required them to travel in mini buses directly from their homes to the employer’s farms which were situated around the country. This meant that some of their journeys could last several hours.
HMRC, which has national minimum wage enforcement within its remit, investigated whether travel to and from the poultry farms should count as ‘time work’ for the purposes of NMW legislation and decided that it was and issued penalty notices for underpayment of NMW.
Tribunal decisions
The Employment Tribunal agreed finding that they were under their employer’s control during this travel time. The Employment Appeal Tribunal overturned that ruling and HMRC appealed again to the Court of Appeal.
Court of Appeal decision
The appeal was dismissed and the EAT’s decision upheld that travel was not time work and commuting from home to the first workplace and back home again did not breach Regulation 30 of the NMW Regulations – even if this was a considerable distance, and as was the case here, the employees were collected and transported by company mini-bus.
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