If you wear a business outfit to work then surely getting dressed in the morning is overtime?

There was an interesting court case in Germany this week. Not only for people that follow employment law but also for people that have to wear certain outfits to work.

German Policeman Martin Schauder was awarded an extra 7 days of holiday a year after arguing that the time he spent changing into his uniform each day was part of his job. He therefore claimed that this time was part of his work time.

He stated that it took him 15 minutes every day to get his police outfit on and 15 minutes to take it off. These extra 30 minutes a working day amount to an extra 45 working hours every year.

The court in Germany agreed with the policeman and told his employers to either pay him the overtime or to give him holiday.

The police force have unsurprisingly said that they are going to appeal against the decision.

Now, if this case is upheld then it raises some interesting opportunities for me. As an accountant who meets clients then I am expected to be dressed smartly. My personal choice of clothes for the office however would be shorts and a t-shirt so the fact that I have to wear a tie surely means that the time it takes me to do my tie up is overtime.

This varies from a sleepy 1 hour plus on a Monday to a speedy sub 1 minute on a Friday. Adding this all up will amount to a significant sum of overtime money and this is before I take into account the time taken to tie up my shoelaces instead of slip on my preferred choice of footwear of flip flops.