The UK has long been different in some respects. Take property, for example. While swathes of continental Europeans and indeed Americans have for decades happily rented their properties, our homes very much remain our castles. It’s a similar story when it comes to cars, with over a quarter of motorists in the States leasing their vehicles.

“The UK is now fast cottoning on to why car leasing is often the financially savvy option, though”, comments Lee Wolstenholme, Director of Manchester-based Vehicle Consulting, a broker with over 12 years’ experience. “Cars depreciate the minute they are driven off forecourts, so taking out a traditional loan to buy a new vehicle typically leaves motorists with a car or van that has lost value considerably after a few years. Leasing, on the other hand, means you can simply hand the keys back at the end of the contract and the vehicle’s value isn’t yours to worry about”, Lee goes on to explain.

A recent European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruling will have some important consequences for European employment law - specifically for contractors under the Working Time Directive (WTD).

Last week, the ECJ ruled that a group of Spanish workers with no ‘fixed or habitual’ workplace should have their time travelling to and from their first and last appointments counted against the 48 hour maximum working week.

The case involved a team of burglar alarm technicians who sometimes spent three hours travelling home at the end of their working day.

The European court ruled that these contractors should receive remuneration for the time they spent travelling to and from work, because they are at their ‘employer’s disposal’, carrying out their activities and duties ‘in accordance with national laws and/or practices’.

To keep contractors up to speed on their entitlements under European law, we’ve explained three of the most important details of the ECJ ruling: