“HMRC enforce National Minimum Wage (NMW) legislation in line with the policy set out by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) and do not have discretion to take action outside of the law. For all minimum wage investigations, HMRC officers must consider the facts available to them to allow them to draw a balanced conclusion. They must, though, require all employers to pay back any arrears that they find. The legislation on whether workers employed on a sleeping shift are working and entitled to National Minimum Wage has been tested at Tribunal, and BEIS guidance and HMRC operational practice follow that case law. The case law is very fact-specific and each case HMRC investigate is treated on its own merits and requires the facts to be established to ensure the circumstances of each worker are taken into account. If there is a statutory requirement for a worker to be present or they would face disciplinary action if they left the workplace, they would usually be entitled to NMW or NLW, including whilst sleeping, because they are working for the whole time they are on shift. Where an underpayment is identified, HMRC will issue a Notice of Underpayment specifying the arrears due for the full period the worker was underpaid, up to a maximum of six years. To help employers meet NMW legislation, BEIS have published guidance on how to calculate the minimum wage, which includes examples of when a worker is sleeping. You can find it here."
This approach in part reflects some of their published guidance. However, the emphasis on following case law gives a clearer indication of their approach to inspection than that contained within the published guidance. There are not many providers we know who can let sleep-in staff come and go as they please. We have a number of cases ongoing with HMRC where we have raised various questions and if we have any further news that may impact on your approach to payment of sleep-ins will provide a further update.
For further information
For a discussion on the impact on your approach to sleep-ins please contact Matthew Wort or Anna Dabek. You can also find out more about how we can help health and social care organisations on our website here.
AGM plans gone awry with re-introduced lockdown measures? Good news: saving provisions are now in place until 30 December 2020
During the Covid-19 pandemic, much of the focus has been on shoring up existing delivery and, where possible, extending arrangements if it is not possible to re-procure.
The Prime Minister announced on Tuesday 22 September a new range of restrictions to protect us from the Covid crisis, some of which will apply to charities.
Following the end of the possession stay on 21 September, Helen Tucker & Rebecca Sembuuze from our housing litigation team discuss the most recent guidance, priority cases and what to expect in court.
Covid-19 has resulted, on the whole, in a marked co-operation between contracting authorities and their suppliers as everybody focuses on maintaining delivery as far as possible.
Employment Tribunal rules in favour of claimants in minimum wage case – has the interpretation of “working time” changed?
As we enter a recession, we have been here before, and a key question is what did we learn and how can we benefit from that learning?
It is anticipated that as lockdown restrictions ease, and particularly with children and young adults returning to education, cases of meningitis will start to rise.
As we continue to emerge from lockdown measures and deal with local measures and the short and long term economic impact of Covid-19, local authorities will need to re-assess how services will be delivered for years to come.
The Government first announced plans for a shared ownership right to buy in October 2019. At the time the sector raised concerns about the impact the plans would have on housing associations ability to borrow. An election and a pandemic later the Government announced, during the CIH Housing Festival last week, the return of the right to shared ownership as part of its Affordable Homes Programme (AHP).
To receive invitations to our events, as well as information and articles on legal issues and sector developments that are of interest to you, please sign up to Newsroom.