Triumph in landmark working time case

13.07.18

The Court of Appeal have this morning handed down its decision in the much anticipated reserved judgement, following the hearing on 20 and 21 March 2018, in the joint case of Royal Mencap Society and Claire Tomlinson-Blake and John Shannon and Mr and Mrs Rampersad t/a Clifton House Residential Home.

In both cases the Court of Appeal have unanimously decided that both Mr Shannon and Ms Tomlinson-Blake were not working during "Sleep-ins" for the purpose of the National Minimum Wage Regulations and instead were "available for work" other than the time when they were required to be awake for the purposes of working. 

Ashfords LLP, acting for the Rampersads (owners of Clifton House Residential Home) accordingly successfully defended Mr Shannon's claim that he was entitled to have the entirety of the hours between 10 pm and 7 am counted as salaried hours work for National Minimum Wage purposes for 365 days a year amounting to almost £240,000 in arrears of pay.

Ashfords LLP commented: "We are delighted with the outcome of this landmark joint case which will come as a huge relief to the care sector who have been estimated to be facing several hundreds of millions of pounds in back pay and penalties to staff resulting in some organisation inevitably facing bankruptcy".

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