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New ruling: commuting time counts as labour time

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I don’t know about you, but I’ve got a bit of a love-hate relationship with my commute to and from work. 

On the one hand, travelling by train to work gives me the opportunity to get some much needed reading done. It’s also the fastest and most convenient way to get to work  - you get to avoid being stuck in traffic dodging rude drivers and minibus taxies.

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On the other hand, it does come with its share of problems.

Train delays, overly full carriages (dealing with funky body odour is my absolute favourite. Not) and having to deal with inconsiderate people on the train (manspreading is always fun), are just some of the things we commuters have to put up with.

So you can imagine how thrilled I was when I heard  that in certain parts of the world, travelling to and from work can now be classified as work time.

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According to QZ.com, The European Court of Justice has ruled that people who commute to their areas of work should count the time travelling as labour time.

This particularly applies to workers who don’t have fixed day-to-day office positions and often require to work at various different locations (think electricians, plumbers, etc).

The law actually came about because of a security company who were forced to close their physical offices and allow their employees to work from home.

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While we don’t have this in South Africa (yet), we’re definitely on board with this. It might not improve the ups and downs of commuting, but knowing that it counts as work will surely make things a little better, no?

What do you think of this? Would including your travel to the office as work time make any difference to you?  Are there any strict or interesting policies that your company applies when it comes to work travel? Share your comments with us.

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