In the news this week, it was announced that seventeen homeworkers are to sue both Sevacare and Haringey Borough Council over an alleged failure to pay national minimum wage.
It has been reported in the media that the Council’s contractors, Sevacare, paid some of its live-in care workers only £3.27 an hour, a far cry from the previous national minimum wage rate of £6.70 and even further from the national living wage of £7.20 an hour as introduced earlier this year. Although not directly paying the workers themselves, as the body responsible for commissioning the care, Haringey Borough Council are also facing legal claims.
Sevacare denies the claims on the basis that some hours to which the workers refer were not working time and maintains that, on average, the workers’ pay exceeds the national minimums.
This will no doubt spark discussion on the often blurry lines between working time and personal time and it will be an interesting one to watch. In the meantime, it is a reminder to employers to ensure they are aware of their obligations and ensure both they and any contractors commissioning work on their behalf pay workers in accordance with the applicable national minimum wage or national living wage rates.