(en) France, Alternative Libertaire AL #253 (Oct) - Right:
Compensation for travel time (fr, it, pt) [machine translation]
Since June 2011, Lawrence worked as a driver of vehicles in a company involved in forestry
work on the forest massifs of the Landes de Gascogne. His work places were obviously
variables. But the employer agreed to pay Laurent that from the time he took his post.
Travel time from home to work sites, return on average more than 200 km per day, was not
compensated him. In December 2012, Laurent is dismissed for economic reasons. That's when
he made contact with the CGT to get paid his travel time. ---- The law requires only
compensation she defines as "actual working time", ie "the time during which the employee
is at the disposal of the employer and comply with its instructions without being able to
attend free for personal pursuits ". If the employee takes his position at the company's
headquarters, time to get on the sites will be actual working time. If he goes, as in the
case of Lawrence, home directly on the site, the trip is not paid because the employee
has, for example, the right to stop in a cafe for its small lunch. It is therefore
supposed to be free to attend to personal matters provided that it arrives on time at his
post. However the legislator said that if the journey time 'exceeds the normal travel time
between home and the usual place of work, is the subject of consideration ". This "is
determined by convention or collective labor agreement or, failing that, by unilateral
decision of the employer".
The applicable collective agreement is not dealing with this issue, compensation for
travel time should be provided by the employer, at least, was to leave a memo, prescribing
conditions that counterparty. What he did not do, thus violating the law.
With no text to encrypt the claim of the employee, the defender has used the only
available evidence, particularly on an article of the collective agreement dealing with
the kilometric compensation for workers on site and on claiming that " remote workplaces
of more than 15 km [...] of the employee's home, a [kilometer] benefit will be paid to it
". Laurent has produced a summary of the projects on which he worked for the company and
deduced that he should receive compensation of 736 hours. Concerning the rate of
compensation, the jurisprudence states that it "belongs to trial judges to make this
attachment". The union advocate called the council to be guided by the only available
element, ie the hourly rate of the employee. The Labour Court followed the employee's
request and ordered the employer to pay him 7840 euros.
http://www.alternativelibertaire.org/?Droits-devant-L-indemnisation-du
