The Dutch Supreme Court recently ruled on a case involving an employee of a call center. Teleperformance employees are required to be present 10 minutes before the start of their official working hours. This is also set out in the house rules. If an employee is not logged in and ready on time, sanctions can be imposed, including dismissal. During those ten minutes, the call center employees have to start up around 10 different computer programs so that they can start working in the various systems right at the official start time. One employee disagreed with this. He believed that these 10 minutes were actually just working time, since he had to carry out tasks during that time. He therefore argued that he should be paid for it.

Employer Teleperformance did not share this view. After all, during those ten minutes the employee could also go to the bathroom or chat with colleagues. Teleperformance appealed after the employee was found to be in the right by the lower courts. The Supreme Court recently again ruled in favor of the employee in its opinion. During those ten minutes, the employer’s instructions apply. It concerns preparatory work that is necessary in order to be able to handle the calls. Preparation time is therefore definitively working time, and must therefore also be paid (retroactively where needed).

So take note: employees can claim back pay retroactively, up to 5 years back. This concerned a part-time employee working 24 hours a week. That is 30 minutes per week. Calculated over 5 years, that is 7,800 minutes. That amounts to 130 hours for a single employee. On top of that, statutory interest and the statutory increase may also apply. And there is the risk that more employees will now also file a claim against Teleperformance. That could become a very costly matter.

So make sure you don’t ask your employees to already be present before “official working hours” while also ‘asking’ something of them, such as logging in, changing clothes, or being on standby. You can, of course, ask your employees to always be punctual. But if you nevertheless expect them to already do something for you before that time (even if it’s just logging into multiple systems), that counts as paid working time.

Do you have questions about this, would you like this reviewed for your own business, or would you like your house rules updated accordingly? Please contact the business lawyers of The Legal Company via info@thelegalcompany.nl or call 020 345 0152.

Nothing changes as constantly as laws and regulations. Please note that our blogs may no longer align with current laws and regulations and may therefore be outdated. If you have questions or an issue relating to this blog, or would like legal assistance, please contact us.