Should charities speak out on sleep-in arrears? Giselle Davies & Ellis Pugh report
- A newly-announced government scheme places more pressure on charities to address the issue of paying care workers for time spent asleep while on shift.
- Many charities may struggle in treading the line between voicing their concerns regarding this issue, and running the risk of engaging in political activity.
The issue currently giving sleepless nights to charities involved in the care sector is the thorny issue of payment of arrears to care workers for the time during their shift which were spent asleep. The numbers involved are substantial, and it is estimated this could cost the sector around £400m.
On 1 November 2017 the Government announced its voluntary scheme to address this pay gap. Providers joining the scheme would be given 12 months to conduct a self-review with access to HMRC support, then up to three months to pay all arrears with a longstop date of 31 March 2019. Affected charities not signing up to the scheme have been warned that they ‘will be subject
