On-call work and sleep-ins in the NHS

Since 2011 there has been a negotiated national framework (to be applied locally) for on-call work and sleep-ins in the NHS (NHS terms and conditions of service Annexe A3). Taking into account both the WTR and NMR it establishes the principle of payment for work done, including work done at home.

It defines on-call as being when (as part of an established arrangement) a worker is available outside his/her normal working hours — either at the workplace, at home or elsewhere — to work as and when required. It recognises three distinct types of on-call availability and the need for a payment to reflect that availability:

1. At home ready to be called out or to undertake work at the workplace.

2. At work ready to undertake work.

3. Sleeping in at a workplace.

It includes a separate concept of sleeping in which is defined as incorporating “hours of wakefulness” as well as sleeping and work done:

In those situations where a sleeping-in session includes what the National Minimum Wage Regulations would classify as work, or when the individual is woken during a sleeping-in duty, this should be paid as work done at the appropriate hourly rate.