Pay for Traveling to Work? Yes, In Europe; No, in U.S.

The European Union’s highest court has ruled that workers without a stationary office—for example, a home health care worker, or a service technician who travels in a van— must be paid when they leave home until they return from work. In the U.S., this is highly implausible. The main law that covers this situation is the Portal-to-Portal Act. It says that “compensable time” begins with “principal” work activities, and also includes preliminary and postliminary activities if they are “integrally related” to principal activities. Examples: Refueling a company vehicle at the firm’s garage; donning and doffing safety equipment to work on a “cut line” in a meat packing plant. Excluded: Going through an employer’s security screening line in the Supreme Court’s recent (and narrow) construction of the Portal-to-Portal Act.  Read news about EU court here. Contrast with our Supreme Court's ruling in 2014 here, involving an Amazon fulfillment center.