Short Answer

Travel time outside your standard office schedule counts as legally compensable work hours exclusively if your employer explicitly orders you to perform active duties during transit.

Passive commuting on a train or airplane where you can sleep or read resides in a strict legislative gray area that your contract can completely exploit.

What Most Expats Don't Realize

You regularly took four-hour evening train rides to distant client offices, assuming that carrying your heavy corporate gear and spending time on the tracks meant you were accumulating overtime. Your employer applied a restrictive internal clause in the travel policy (Reisekostenrichtlinie) that systematically categorized all passive transit hours as completely uncompensated private leisure time. You gave the company 16 hours of free weekly presence, resulting in a hidden salary loss of approximately €2,400 over a single quarter.

What To Do

  • Download a digital copy of your company's official corporate travel policy to check for explicit limits on transit tracking (Reisezeit).
  • Ask your manager via email for a direct, written assignment to complete specific slide decks or technical reviews while riding the train.
  • "Zählt die Reisezeit für die bevorstehende Dienstreise als reguläre Arbeitszeit?" (Does the travel time for the upcoming business trip count as regular working time?) — send this inquiry to HR before booking your itinerary.