Travel time and overtime explained in the construction CLA

Anyone working in construction or installation technology knows how quickly disputes arise regarding hours. One week you drive to a job just outside your municipality, the next week you are working late because the floor “really has to be finished today.” And then the payslip arrives. Were travel hours included? Were those extra hours overtime or “just pitching in”?

The Construction Collective Labour Agreement (Construction & Infrastructure CLA) makes clear agreements on this, but the practice only becomes truly clear when you understand the distinction between travel time , travel time compensation , hours worked , and overtime . It is explained in a no-nonsense manner below, with attention to record-keeping and common pitfalls.

First, the most important distinction: travel time is not always working time.

Travel time can take two forms:

1. Commuting: from home to the work location and back.
2. Traveling during the workday: from job to job, picking up materials, to another construction site.

That difference often determines whether something counts as working time. Traveling during the workday generally does fall under working time and should simply be included in your time registration . Legally, commuting is usually not considered working time, but the construction CLA does provide for a travel allowance if you work outside your municipality of residence.

Travel time under the construction CLA: when are you entitled to it?

The Collective Labour Agreement uses “travel time” for the time spent traveling between your home and work location, with an important condition: in principle, you are only entitled to travel time compensation if you work outside your municipality of residence . Work within the same municipality normally does not result in travel time compensation.

There is another much-discussed rule attached to this: the first hour of travel per day is not reimbursed. There are exceptions, for example if you, as a driver, take colleagues along. That makes the distinction between “passenger” and “driver” in the collective labor agreement relevant.

These kinds of rules often lead to discussions on the construction site, while it is actually a matter of administration: which municipality is leading, what role did someone have that day, and was the distance determined correctly?

How is that travel time allowance calculated?

The travel time allowance is not simply a matter of “turning the clock on and off”. The Collective Labour Agreement (CAO) operates with a standard scheme : based on the one-way distance (kilometers) and your mode of transport, a standard is established for the number of reimbursable travel hours. For car use, this standard uses an average speed (often 60 km/h as a starting point), while separate standards apply to other modes of transport.

The reimbursement per travel hour is linked to the guaranteed wage , with a maximum (limited to the guaranteed wage of job group A). ​​Payment is included in the normal salary period.

A few practical points that often help prevent misunderstandings (and that you can agree on immediately within your company):

• Departure point: the residence as known in the personnel records
• Means of transport: car, public transport, bicycle, etc.
• Role: driver or passenger

These are small choices that can explain large wage differences later on.

Traveling during the workday: do register as worked time

If you drive to job A in the morning and the site manager then sends you on to job B, that is not “commuting”. That is travel during working hours. A trip to pick up materials or an urgent visit to another client often falls under this as well.

In practice, things go wrong here when people classify everything as “travel time,” while a portion is simply project time . This is not just a matter of wages; it also impacts your cost per project and your schedule.

Anyone who wants to keep this organized therefore records three things separately:

• hours worked on project
• travel time between projects (as worked time)
• commuting allowance according to CLA (as a type of allowance)

The 13-hour limit: work, break, and travel combined

The collective labor agreement has a strict limit: working hours + breaks + travel hours combined may not exceed 13 hours per day . This is a safety and capacity limit, and it sometimes forces you to look differently at “we’ll just keep going for another hour.”

Important detail: if travel causes you to exceed those 13 hours, adjustments must be made. In certain cases, travel hours within that limit are paid as worked hours to stay within the norm, depending on the CLA provision and the daily schedule. That is exactly the kind of rule you don't want to have to calculate in your head at 21:30 PM on Friday.

Clear daily records are your best protection here, for both employer and employee.

Overtime: when are extra hours really “overtime”?

Overtime in the collective labor agreement is not the same as “working more hours than your contract.” Overtime occurs when you work more than stipulated in the predetermined schedule for that day. That sounds technical, and it is.

Two consequences:

• So, you can only properly determine whether something constitutes overtime if the schedule was clear in advance.
• Not all extra hours automatically count as overtime; the collective labor agreement states, for example, that mandatory extra hours under a time-savings model are not overtime.

The Collective Labour Agreement is strict on structural overtime. Overtime is intended for exceptional cases, not as a standard method of planning. Construction site workers are fundamentally not required to work overtime, and additional conditions apply to structural overtime.

Overtime pay: the percentages at a glance

The Collective Labour Agreement (CAO) uses allowances on top of your hourly wage. The core (always check the current CAO text for details and exceptions):

Please note: in addition to overtime supplements, there are also supplements for “special hours” (for example, working at non-standard times). Sometimes the higher supplement for special hours applies instead of the standard overtime supplement. This requires proper coding in your time registration; otherwise, you will pay too little or too much.

Time-for-time: payout or take

The Collective Labour Agreement (CLA) offers the option to convert overtime (and specifically the supplement) into time off. This choice rests with the employee and must be communicated within a short period after the overtime has been worked (the CLA specifies a period of a few working days for this). Normal wages are paid while this time is taken.

What often goes wrong here is not the choice itself, but the documentation. If the choice is not recorded per day or per overtime situation, you end up with discussions afterwards: “Wasn’t it supposed to be time-for-time?” or “I thought it was paid out.”

A simple method helps:

• Appointment time: book the same week (not just at the end of the month)
• Registration: separate field for “payout” or “time-for-time”
• Approval: manager checks before processing in salary

Common misunderstandings (and how to avoid them)

In the construction industry, things rarely go wrong due to unwillingness. Usually, it is a combination of busyness, unclear agreements, and registration afterwards on paper or via WhatsApp.

After a brief explanation to the team, these are often the points that stick:

• Travel time compensation does not always apply within one's own municipality.
• The first hour of travel per day often does not count towards reimbursement.
• Trips between jobs are not commuting, but working time.
• Overtime is linked to the schedule, not to “feeling”.
• Weekend and public holiday: surcharges can increase significantly

Anyone who discusses this in advance with new employees or for a new project gains peace of mind.

Registration in practice: why “approximately” doesn’t work

When it comes to travel time and overtime, everything revolves around verifiability. The Collective Labour Agreement requires transparent timekeeping records. Overtime is often accompanied by an overtime list per project, including the choice between time and money. Furthermore, employees must be able to view their own data.

Paper timesheets can work just fine, until something goes wrong: a lost sheet, illegible notes, different versions, or a supervisor who only enters the stack after two weeks. Then it is too late to resolve discrepancies properly.

Digital registration usually makes it easier to speak the same language: recording daily what was working time, what was travel time, and which allowance category applies.

How do Werkbriefje.app fits with this (without extra ballast)

Werkbriefje.app is developed for small construction and installation companies that their work slips We want to do this digitally, without an extensive ERP package. The main goal is: faster registration, less discussion, and preparing hours for payroll and invoicing.

In practice, these are the components that make the difference regarding travel time and overtime:

• Mileage registration: set routes with automatic distance calculation (via Google Maps), useful as a basis for travel times and trip administration
• Hours per project and special hours: record travel hours, leave, or other categories separately in addition to regular hours
• Finish and approve the week: employee finalizes, employer checks and approves so that a single version of the truth is established

Because hours, trips, photos , and notes can be added to a project, it is also easier to substantiate additional work or delays. This helps not only internally but also with the client when a schedule shifts.

Small checklist for a streamlined process (employer and employee)

A workable process is often more important than knowing yet another rule. This checklist is small enough to stick to:

• Schedule is clearWhat is a typical workday on this project?
• Travel appointment confirmed: outside municipality yes/no, driver/passenger, departure address correct
• Daily tracking: not “fill everything in on Friday”
• Select allowance category: overtime, special hours, weekend/public holiday
• Check before payroll run: immediately report discrepancies back to the employee

Once you establish this rhythm, travel time and overtime become an administrative formality rather than a monthly discussion. This frees up space to focus on the real work: ongoing projects, with a grip on costs and clear agreements on the payslip.