October 21, 2008
Guru was abruptly woken at 11:30am this morning to be told of the care worker in North Wales who is entitled by law to be woken after six hours' sleep to take a rest break.
Yours Truly drifted back off for a couple of hours then got up to write this blog. Even after three extra-strong coffees and two Danish pastries, however, he was unable to fully get his head around this one.
Apparently, Mrs S Hughes claimed for constructive unfair dismissal against the owners of Graylyns residential home, on the grounds including an alleged breach of working time regulations.
As far as Guru can make out, the Employment Appeal Tribunal ruled that Hughes was entitled to be paid the minimum wage while she was awake on call, regardless of whether she was working. It said she was entitled to be woken up after six hours' unpaid sleep to be given a paid rest break.
Guru wonders who should have woken her up, and whether they were entitled to be paid for so doing.
Judge McMullen, who presided over the EAT hearing, summed up the situation with a heavy dose of understatement.
He said: "There may be practical difficulties - indeed absurdities - in the suggestion that a person who is at home sleeping but on call is entitled after six hours of that to be woken up and given a rest break."
Guru is so amazed he is heading off to bed. Mrs Guru has been instructed to wake him in an hour's time to give him another Danish pastry and run him through this story again.
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