Business travel for itinerant employees.

Business travel for traveling employees: travel time between home and client sites does not constitute actual working time.

Cass. Soc -October 25, 2023 n° 20-22.800

By a decision of October 25, 2023, the Court of Cassation recalls, on the basis of articles L 3121-1 & L 3121-4 of the Labor Code, the last in its version prior to law no. 2016-1088 of August 8, 2016, that when the travel times accomplished by the itinerant employee between his home and customer sites meet the definition of effective working time.

In this judgment, it notes that the overtime that the employee considered to have worked resulted from the taking into consideration of his time of effective work between home and customer site.

The Court then noted that the vehicle used had a geolocation device, a monthly schedule, and that the employee had to submit overtime work to his superior's approval. In addition, the employee had to declare any delay, anticipation or cancellation of an inspection, since he received a weekly schedule indicating the inspections to be carried out and the dates of these.

The Court specifies, moreover, that the itinerant employee remains free to go about his or her activities as an itinerant employee , the person concerned remained free to carry out his personal activities before his professional meetings.

As a result, the High Court confirms the judgment of the Court of Appeal which deduced that the travel time between the employee's home and the sites of the first and last clients did not constitute effective working time.

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