Bowden and ors v Tuffnells Parcels Express Ltd [2001] IRLR 838
The scope of the coverage of the Working Time Directive has long been problematic. The final draft of the Directive owed more to the political process in Europe than to logic. One of the exclusions under the Directive was the transport 'sector'. This was faithfully translated into the UK Working Time Regulations without amplification.
Does this mean that no-one working in the sector could benefit to minimum annual leave entitlements or only those doing the actual transporting? Mrs Bowden and her colleagues working in the clerical department of a road parcel delivery firm firm in Kent sought to establish their right to paid annual leave.
An Employment Tribunal held that they were employed in the road transport 'sector of activity' and therefore had no rights under the Working Time Regulations 1998. The EAT referred the case to the European Court of Justice. The ECJ has now ruled that the Community legislature clearly indicated that it was taking account of those sectors of activity as a whole. It did not matter that the clerical and driving functions were completely separate at the company and that the van drivers were not allowed into the office where Mrs Bowden worked.
Thankfully the Working Time Directive has been amended to limit the exclusion to mobile workers only in the transport sector by 1 August 2003.