Can the login time before starting the work be regarded as working time and, therefore, be paid?
Every employer has their own rules and regulations regarding working hours. In the case before the District Court of the Hague, the employer maintained a strict "10-minute rule", which obligated employees to log in at least 10 minutes before starting the work so that the employee could receive calls from the moment they officially began their shift.
Salary over the "login time"
After the employment ended, the employee claimed unpaid salary over the "login time". According to her, the employer expected everyone to be ready behind their computers, logged in and with their headset on so they could start working from the start of their shift. The rules and instructions of the employer apply during the "login time" so that these 10-15 minutes could be regarded as working time and, therefore, be paid.
The employer disputed this claim and argued that the "10-minute rule" only applied to employees working at the office. As the employee in question worked from home, the rule did not apply to her. Furthermore, during the "login time", the employee did not have to perform any work as referred to in the employment contract. When she started her computer, she did not have to report to anyone and was not under the employer's authority.
A similar case before the Court of Appeal
In a similar case in which the same employer disputed the same "10-minute rule" before the District Court of the Hague two years earlier, the court had decided that the "login time" should be considered working time. The Court of Appeal of The Hague later upheld this decision.
The difference between the two cases was that the employee worked from home in the current case. This difference resulted in a negative outcome for the employee.
The court's decision
The court assessed that, now that this employee worked from home, her situation substantially differed from the previous case. Because she worked from home, the employee could, unlike the case before the Court of Appeal, use her "login time" more freely on personal matters than if she were at the office. During the 10-15 minutes before officially starting her shift, she didn't have to work, and her employer had no control over her or how she wanted to organize that time. In contrast to employees working at the office, there was no restriction on how she could spend her time.
Therefore, the "login time" could not be regarded as working time.