Workers who spend time getting to and from their appointments without a fixed office should be paid for that time, the European Court of Justice has ruled, the BBC reports.

Most employers did not consider such travel time as work.

Companies that employ care workers, gas fitters and sales reps may be breaking the European Union working time regulations by not paying these workers for their time spent travelling on the job.

The BBC's legal correspondent said this court ruling could have a "huge effect" on companies.

"Employers may have to organize work schedules to ensure workers' first and last appointments are close to their homes," he added.

The court said it made the decision to protect the "health and safety" of workers as set out in the European Union's Working Time Directive.

Under the directive, employees are supposed to be protected from being exploited by their employers. Employees have regulations on how many hours they can work, how many breaks they get and how much time they get off.

An important goal of the Working Time Directive is to ensure that no employee in the EU works more than 48 hours per week.

The courts were prompted to make a ruling after an ongoing legal case involving Tyco, a security systems installer in Spain.

Tyco shutdown its regional offices back in 2011, which forced employees to travel different distances to get to their first appointments each day.

The court ruling said, "The fact that the workers begin and finish the journeys at their homes stems directly from the decision of their employer to abolish the regional offices and not from the desire of the workers themselves.

"Requiring them to bear the burden of their employer's choice would be contrary to the objective of protecting the safety and health of workers pursued by the directive, which includes the necessity of guaranteeing workers a minimum rest period."

Many workers could be affected by this court decision. Employment law barrister Caspar Glyn said that "millions of workers" could be affected.

Now that this rule has been put in place, employers will have to adjust their employees' schedules to make sure they aren't forcing anyone to work 60 hours including travel time, Yahoo News reports.