Hannah Johnson

Paralegal

DATE PUBLISHED: 20 Feb 2019 LAST UPDATED: 09 Jun 2021

Supreme Court grants application to hear sleep-in appeal

The Supreme Court has granted leave to appeal against the Court of Appeal ruling from last year that care workers were not entitled to receive the national minimum wage for sleep-in shifts.

The lead up to this has been ongoing since 2016, with the background as follows:

  • The care workers succeeded in the employment tribunal (2016) and employment appeal tribunal (2017) where it was found that they should have been paid the full national minimum wage during sleep-in shifts.
  • The Court of Appeal overturned the decision in July 2018.
  • In August 2018, Unison (who represent the care worker, Clare Tomlinson-Blake) applied to appeal the decision of the Court of Appeal. In short, their case is that sleep-in shifts should count as working time and care workers should be
    paid at least the hourly minimum wage rates.
  • The Supreme Court granted the application on 12 February 2019 – please follow this link to Unison’s blog which has a copy of the Order.

We now await the Supreme Court to list a hearing for this appeal, which is likely to be at the end of this year.

In the meantime, the care sector remains in uncertainty until the appeal has been heard to clarify this area of law.

If you have any queries regarding this development, please do not hesitate to contact us on kate.brooks@ellisjones.co.uk (01202 057754) or hannah.roberts@ellisjones.co.uk (01202 057752).

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