The government needs to step in and change the law following
today’s (Friday 19 March) Supreme Court ruling that carers, who
have to sleep at their workplace in case they are needed
overnight, are not entitled to the national minimum wage (NMW)
for their whole shift.
The call came from Unite, Britain and Ireland’s largest union,
which said the Supreme Court had failed to recognise the ‘immense
contribution’ that highly skilled care workers make during the
night delivering essential adult social care, especially during
the year-long pandemic.
Unite said that the ruling would do nothing to tackle the
‘recruitment and retention’ crisis with thousands of vacancies in
the care sector and the wider funding ‘gap’ in social care that
the government has repeatedly said it was going to address
Unite assistant general secretary Gail Cartmail said: “This is a
deeply disappointing judgment by the Supreme Court which will
further depress the wages of an already lowly-paid workforce of
highly skilled care workers.
“The social care sector has been facing a funding crisis for the
last 20 years. This judgement gives a green light to employers to
continue to pay ‘poverty wages’ to a workforce where women are in
the majority. Today’s ruling will do nothing to retain staff nor
recruit skilled workers to look after the elderly and support
disabled people.
“We believe that those staff who sleep-in at their workplace are,
in fact, working. Their first and only commitment is to those
they care for during the night and they are ‘on call’, and work
through the night when required.
“It is now time for the government to step in and change the
legislation so care workers receive at least the national minimum
wage during the course of the whole night.
“It goes without saying that throughout the pandemic, these
dedicated key workers have worked under immense pressure, and
this should be recognised by the government.
“Boris Johnson promised when he became prime minister in July
2019: ‘We will fix the crisis in social care once and for all
with a clear plan we have prepared to give every older person the
dignity and security they deserve’.
“Now it is time for the prime minister to unveil his so-called
‘clear plan’ and deliver a pay rise for workers in social care,
which is made all the more urgent’ by the Supreme Court ruling.
“In the overall scheme of things, this would be a relatively
small financial cost compared with the £37bn that the government
has spent on the flawed private sector-led ‘test and trace’
system.”
Today’s judgement upholds the Court of Appeal decision in 2018
which found that care worker Ms Tomlinson-Blake was only entitled
to the NMW when she was actually carrying out her duties – such
as helping a patient or doing other work – and not when she was
sleeping or resting.
The national minimum wage will be £8.91 an hour from April 2021.
