Quote:
Originally Posted by OLD BOY
The requirement to be on-site was why they were paid an allowance. How could they be doing other paid work when it was beddy-byes time?
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The law quite rightly says that if you are required to be at your place of work you are at work and must be paid. That is, actually paid, not given an ‘allowance’. If the employer stipulates that the employee may sleep unless certain activities are required to be carried out then that’s the employer’s business. There’s nothing stopping them organising a night shift with activities throughout the night. Of course the reason they didn’t do that was to try to avoid paying people for being on the night shift. It was a scam that has been rightly stamped out.
If I am required to report to a location stipulated by my employer, as part of my contract of employment, and remain there for eight hours, so its no longer my own time and I am no longer free to choose where to go and who to spend time with, then I am at work and my employer must pay for my time and then has the luxury of giving me tasks to perform. Great if they want to tell me I can sleep on the job but that’s their choice, not mine.