Rate of record
Care and the minimum wage
Care has the most contested edge cases: sleep-in shifts, travel time, on-call. The Supreme Court ruling in Mencap reframed sleep-ins; travel between client visits remains time work for NMW.
Sleep-in shifts post-Mencap
In Royal Mencap Society v Tomlinson-Blake (UKSC 2018-0160, judgment 19 March 2021) the Supreme Court held that sleep-in workers are only entitled to NMW for the hours they are awake and required to work. The hours asleep are not time work for NMW purposessupremecourt.uk. Many care providers continue to pay a flat sleep-in allowance plus NMW for hours awake.
Travel time between client visits
For domiciliary carers, travel time between client visits is time work and must be paid at NMW. Travel from home to the first client and from the last client to home is not time work. Travel between is.
On-call time
On-call time at the workplace is time work. On-call time at home, with freedom to do other things, is not. The test is "at the employer's disposal", established in a long line of European cases that survived in domestic law.
DBS, training and uniform deductions
A deduction for the DBS check breaches NMW if it pushes pay below the band floor. The same applies to mandatory training, uniform and PPE. Care providers regularly appear on the DBT naming list for this reason.