Case Study: When Does an Employee’s Travel Time Count Towards National Minimum Wage?

Employers operating in industries where workers travel long distances to job sites will welcome recent clarity from the Court of Appeal.

In Revenue and Customs Commissioners v Taylors Services Ltd, the court ruled that poultry workers transported from their homes to farms on an employer-provided minibus were not entitled to be paid the National Minimum Wage (NMW) for that travel time.

The decision confirms that not all travel connected with work is “working time” for NMW purposes — even when it adds many hours to an employee’s day.

Overview of the Relevant Law

The National Minimum Wage Regulations 2015 (NMW rules) establish how working hours are calculated for NMW purposes. They define four categories of work:

• Salaried hours work
• Time work
• Output work
• Unmeasured work

In this case, the focus was on time work, which is generally paid by reference to the hours worked.

Two key provisions were central to the judgment:

• Regulation 30 — defines “time work” and includes circumstances where a worker is paid solely by reference to the time worked, or a combination of time and output.
• Regulation 34 — a deeming provision that sets out when travel time is treated as time work but explicitly excludes travel between a worker’s home and their normal place of work or an assignment, even if that travel is long or inconvenient.

The Court of Appeal, applying the reasoning from Royal Mencap Society v Tomlinson-Blake, stressed that provisions under the NMW rules must be read together. Tribunals should not isolate regulation 30 from regulation 34, and where the wording of the law is clear, a “purposive” interpretation should not be used to achieve a perceived fairer result.

Employment tribunal finds travel time should be paid at the NMW rate

Taylors Services Ltd (TSL) engaged poultry workers on zero-hours contracts, supplying them to farms nationwide to carry out tasks such as injecting, grading, loading, and unloading poultry. The company provided a minibus to collect workers from their homes and deliver them directly to assignments.

Some journeys were extremely long — up to eight additional hours in a working day — and could involve collections in the middle of the night. While workers were paid for travel, the rate was £2.50 per hour, well below the NMW.

In 2020, HMRC determined that the travel time should be paid at the NMW rate and issued underpayment notices totalling around £62,000. The tribunal agreed with HMRC, reasoning that the travel was integral to the job and not a normal commute.

Tribunal decision overturned by appeal courts

The Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) overturned the tribunal’s decision, concluding that the travel was excluded under regulation 34. The Court of Appeal has now upheld the EAT’s decision.

1. Regulation 30 cannot be read in isolation
   • The tribunal erred by basing its finding solely on regulation 30 without considering the limits imposed by regulation 34.
   • Regulation 34 is a “deeming” provision, which assumes travel is not work unless it meets specific criteria.
2. Travel from home to an assignment Is excluded
   • Even when the employer provides transport and dictates routes, home-to-assignment travel is excluded from “time work” under regulation 34.
   • The length of the journey makes no difference — the exclusion applies regardless of duration.
3. Potential injustice is for lawmakers to address
   • The court noted that employers could, in theory, manipulate arrangements to avoid paying NMW for travel.
   • However, it held that only the Low Pay Commission or government can amend the law to address such anomalies.

Travel time under the NMW rules: key points for employers

This case offers a clear, albeit narrow, precedent:

• Home-to-work travel remains unpaid under NMW rules — even with employer-provided transport.
• Between-assignment travel can still be working time — employers must pay NMW for such hours.
• Duration is irrelevant — the exclusion applies whether the journey takes 20 minutes or eight hours.
• Separate consideration is needed under the Working Time Regulations 1998, which may treat certain travel differently for working hours limits.

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