Do you sleep at work?

Here’s a friendly reminder to care assistants, support workers, and anyone else who works sleeping night shifts. If you’re at work, you should be paid for every hour that you’re there. Your pay needs to comply with the national minimum wage which is £7.50 per hour for most workers. A £40 ‘sleeping rate’ is well below the legal limit for an 8 hour sleep-in shift.

Sadly, lots of employers in the health and social care sector regularly break the national minimum wage law. If you work sleeping night shifts, then it’s well worth adding up your hours for the month and seeing whether you are being paid fairly. You can read up on when sleep-ins count as work in the guide below (p.29 covers sleep shifts). A good rule of thumb is-if you’re not allowed to leave the workplace, then you should be getting paid at least the minimum wage.