Manager wins pay for sleeping on the job

Hotel man's required on-call presence was working time, says appeal tribunal

News, 11 August 2006

An Edinburgh hotel manager has won the right to be paid while sleeping after taking his employers to employment tribunal.

William Anderson, guest care manager at the Learmonth Hotel, Edinburgh, was required to sleep overnight at the hotel several times a week to deal with any emergencies that arose.

His employer – Jarvis Hotels – had argued that this on-call time was not working time. The employment tribunal agreed, but Mr Anderson won his case on appeal and was awarded £1,584 in compensation.

The Employment Appeal Tribunal said he should be paid, as his work contract obliged him to be at the hotel and this counted as working time. The hotel needs to have at least two employees present at night to cover health and safety and fire regulations.

Mr Anderson had been warned that if he were not present during one of his allocated sleepovers, it would be a disciplinary matter. While he had not had to deal with many problems and slept through most of the nights he needed to stay at the hotel, the appeal tribunal said being present was what he was required to do and was therefore working time.