Employer says something different than in employment contract.

Questioner

My employment contract literally states the following: The working hours are 40 hours per week. (Monday to Friday) The daily start time is no later than 0900 hours. End time is no earlier than 1630 hours. The hours in between are generally considered the core hours of the office. If the employer deems it necessary, the employee may be assigned work beyond the established working hours. However, this is without the employee being able to claim compensation/reimbursement for this. Any overtime (including travel time) is deemed to be included in the stated salary. Now the staff guide states: - Working hours are defined as the time during which the employee performs work for/on behalf of the employer. The following is stated in the staff guide: Overtime, additional work, time-for-time, shifted hours, extra travel time: - The employee is expected to perform all his work within working hours. Any overtime and additional work of the employee is expected to be included in the salary. Exceptions are the situations in which overtime or additional work occurs at the request of the manager or after consultation with the manager. If this is the case, compensation can take place, for employees up to and including scale X. Procedure: Employee submits a request to the manager. The manager determines whether there is overtime, additional work, time-for-time, shifted hours or extra travel time (additional work / overtime in travel time). Overtime: Overtime is defined as: work that is performed incidentally in addition to a 40-hour workweek. Full hours are offered by the employee for approval by the manager in payroll administration. Additional work: Additional work is understood to mean: work that is performed incidentally in addition to the hours between part-time employment and full-time employment. Full hours are offered by the employee for approval by the manager in payroll administration. Time-for-time hours Time-for-time hours are understood to mean; the time that is worked extra on top of the full-time / part-time employment contract. Whole hours are offered by the employee for approval to the manager in payroll administration. Time-for-time hours can be recorded one-on-one in consultation with or at the request of the manager. Shifted hours are understood to mean; the time that is worked extra on top of the full-time/part-time employment contract and that is compensated one-on-one within 2 weeks. With this option, no hours are booked in payroll administration. Extra travel time (additional work / overtime travel time) This applies to field employees. Additional travel time is understood to mean; If the travel time is more than 10 hours per week and the travel time + working time is more than 50 hours per week, then the additional hours are considered additional travel time. For part-timers this is in proportion to the employment contract. Employee and manager jointly ensure compliance with this guideline. Travel time is only eligible for compensation if it is recorded in a journey registration system or another objective source of information. Whole hours are recorded in payroll administration as additional work / overtime in travel time or time-for-time by the employee and offered for approval to the manager. We do not have a collective labor agreement. Now, while working from home, I have to go to a different customer every day. https://www.rijksoverheid.nl/onderwerpen/werktijden/vraag-en-antwoord/telt-woon-werkverkeer-als-werktijd. Can my employer now say that I have to work 10.5 hours a day? 1 hour there and 1 hour back, 8 hours of work and a half hour break? Can he also say pluses and minuses? So one day 12 hours and the next only 6 hours? I don't think it says anywhere that I have to be available from 6 to 6? My contract states that eight extra hours are necessary, but is it necessary to drive far due to poor planning? Isn't it true that because travel time is work time, I have to be home at 4:30 PM instead of driving then?

Lawyer

In general I can say the following: If a particular trip falls during working hours, those hours will in principle count towards your 40-hour work week. If you work 40 hours a week, of which, for example (because your employer orders you to drive) 15 hours of driving are considered working time, you still have 25 hours left during which you are not behind the wheel. If you occasionally work a little longer, this seems to be included in your salary based on your contract. Below is a case from the European Court, in which a possible similar situation occurred. The return trip is also considered working time. And should in principle fall within the standard number of hours of work, unless there is incidental extra work. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/NL/TXT/?uri=ecli:ECLI:EU:C:2015:578 Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions or require legal assistance.

Questioner

Hello Dennis, First of all, thank you for your answer. My employer says that I have to work 8 hours and have a 2-hour travel time. 1 hour there, 8 hours of work and 1 hour back plus a half-hour break. However, the government's website states that I have no travel time because I drive from home to a new customer every day. Can my employer then say that I actually have to work 10 hours a day? And can he say that one day I only have to work 8 hours and the next day 12 hours? This is not described anywhere, is it then right for him to make such statements? Furthermore, he does not make these statements against people who stay under 40 hours (incl. travel). How does that work with equal treatment?

Lawyer

That cannot be true if it concerns working time. In the case that the travel time is considered working time, you would therefore work a 10-hour day. The maximum working time per day is 12 hours. In principle, there can be a different service per day. But everything depends on what has been agreed and what is customary in the company. So it would be strange if you are the only one in the company who has different 'standard' working hours. In addition, based on your contract, it concerns a working week of 40 hours, from Monday to Friday. So it concerns five working days. Also, you may not stop earlier than 1630 and start later than 0900. With this, the employer also limits the space for itself. It does not state that the 40 hours are spread over less than five days. Within those standard times you are already required to work 7.5 hours per day. That is 37.5 hours. That would mean that there could be a 9-hour day somewhere in between.