On call at home all night: which hours must my boss pay for?

You are at home, but the night belongs to work. Keep the phone on. Be ready for a call-out. Minimum-wage law can leave that waiting unpaid, even when your evening is barely your own. But actual work must enter the pay calculation, and unpaid time can still count against your right to rest.

What to do before the next night

A promise to look at the allowance does not stop a deadline. Get this night onto paper you control.

1. Write the night down. Where you had to be, start and finish, each call and time spent working. For sleep-ins, record every waking duty and whether you could sleep between interruptions.
2. Save the proof. Rotas, payslips and instructions about response times or restrictions. Photograph the sleeping facilities if inadequate. Do not copy patients’ records.
3. Split the hours. Keep separate totals for minimum-wage hours and working time for rest.
4. Ask in writing, if safe. Use the note below. If your employer sponsors your visa or has punished people for asking, speak to a union or law centre first.
5. Report it and protect the deadline. Use the pay and work rights complaint form. For a possible GB tribunal claim, notify Acas for early conciliation. A helpline call is not notification. In Northern Ireland, notify the Labour Relations Agency.

Care and NHS staff can ask UNISON or GMB. Security staff can ask GMB or Unite. Our union guide helps you find one for your job. If the dispute has already started, ask what a new membership covers. Free advice routes include Acas, Citizens Advice, a law centre and the Work Rights Centre. If your visa depends on the job, say so when seeking advice.

Pay and rest are different questions

Start with your contract and any collective agreement. They may promise an on-call allowance, call-out fee or hourly rate above the legal floor. If so, that promise matters even when minimum-wage law does not require payment for the waiting. “It doesn’t count for minimum wage” is not an answer to a contractual pay claim.

For hourly work, regulation 32 of the National Minimum Wage Regulations 2015 covers availability and sleep-ins. Salaried-hours work has separate calculation rules, including regulation 27 for availability when calculating excess hours. A monthly payslip does not tell you which category applies.

Working-time law protects your rest and limits working hours. Regulation 2 of the Working Time Regulations 1998 defines working time. Acas says home standby is more likely to count the more control your employer has over your activities, location and time. Being required to stay at work for a sleep-in usually makes the whole shift working time, including hours asleep. It does not make the whole shift minimum-wage time.

Which night are you actually working?

Read the rota label last. A carer doing observations through the night is working a waking shift, even if the rota calls it a sleep-in.

At home, by the phone

Regulation 32(1) counts hours when you must be available at or near work, but excludes availability at home. HMRC’s guidance distinguishes being contactable from responding to work. A security guard can therefore spend ten hours on standby at home but have only the calls and work done count for minimum wage. We think that is a poor price for giving up your night. It is nevertheless the legal distinction.

A ban on drinking alcohol does not automatically turn standby into work. Nor is a 15-minute response requirement a legal trigger for payment throughout. HMRC says to examine the actual duties, contractual restrictions and burden. If you are taking calls, monitoring systems or dealing with residents throughout the night, those are work activities, wherever you are. Keep the instructions and record what you actually do.

Do not assume that a room your employer requires you to occupy is “home” for this exception. A temporary room at the care home is different from waiting in your own home. Employer-provided accommodation that is also where you live needs individual advice.

The care-home sleep-in

On 19 March 2021, the Supreme Court decided Royal Mencap Society v Tomlinson-Blake, heard with Shannon v Rampersad. Where you are expected to sleep for all or most of a shift and have suitable sleeping facilities, the hours that count are those when you are “awake for the purposes of working”. Reading in bed because you cannot sleep does not count. Being woken to provide emergency back-up does, even if you sit ready for an hour and are never needed.

There is no rule that four calls, or any other fixed number, automatically makes the whole night payable. GOV.UK’s sleep-in guidance says persistent waking that leaves little sleep possible is likely to mean the whole shift counts. For time work and salaried-hours work, the whole workplace standby shift counts if there are no suitable sleeping facilities. A security guard napping in a chair between regular patrols is not a cheap sleep-in.

What the money has to cover

For hourly work, divide the pay that legally counts by the hours that legally count in each pay reference period. That period cannot exceed one calendar month. A low sleep-in fee is not automatically unlawful if the average across all counted work in that period meets your rate. It may still break your contract. The April 2026 rates apply from the first pay reference period starting on or after 1 April. There is no general statutory night premium, but a contract or collective agreement may provide one.

The 11 hours, even when the waiting is unpaid

Regulation 10 gives adult workers 11 consecutive hours’ rest in each 24-hour period in which they work. For adults, regulation 11 normally gives 24 hours’ weekly rest in each seven days, or 48 hours in each 14. Regulation 12 normally gives an uninterrupted 20-minute break when the working day exceeds six hours. Young workers have different, stronger rules, including 12 hours’ daily rest.

For otherwise free home standby, actual work interrupts rest. Subtracting 45 minutes of calls from a long night does not make the remaining gaps consecutive rest. Record when each call ended and your next shift began.

Some round-the-clock care, hospital and security work, and emergencies, fall within exceptions to normal rest rules. Normally the employer must provide equivalent compensatory rest. Ask which exception applies and when replacement rest will happen. If you are too tired to drive or care safely, report the risk and keep a copy. See shift work and fatigue.

Zero-hours, agency, and a contractor label

Employees and workers are both covered, including zero-hours, part-time and agency staff. The agency is usually the employer for the minimum wage. A flat fee does not opt you out. See agency workers and zero-hours contracts.

A contractor label does not decide status. A mandatory rota and set response times are reasons to check for false self-employment, not proof on their own. Genuinely self-employed people do not have these minimum-wage or working-time rights. Calling extra duties on a paid job “voluntary” does not make them genuine volunteering.

Live-in care can be unmeasured work rather than hourly work. A written daily-average agreement must be agreed in advance and estimate the hours realistically. If challenged, the employer must justify it. The care pay guide covers that calculation and travel between visits. Employer-provided accommodation has separate minimum-wage rules, with an offset of £11.10 a day from April 2026. A bed does not let the employer invent a deduction or write off your hours.

Scotland and Northern Ireland

Scotland uses the same minimum-wage rules and Working Time Regulations 1998 as England and Wales. The longer tribunal limit for breach-of-contract claims is scheduled to start on 9 November 2026 in Scotland, rather than 1 October. That is separate from an unlawful-deduction claim over unpaid wages. Get advice on the right claim and its deadline rather than waiting for November.

The minimum-wage rates apply across the UK. Northern Ireland has its own Working Time Regulations 2016, with the normal rest entitlements described by nidirect. Tribunal claims go to an Industrial Tribunal, with early conciliation through the Labour Relations Agency, not Acas. Do not use the GB six-month deadline for a Northern Ireland claim. Ask the LRA promptly about the applicable limit. See employment law differences in Northern Ireland.

If the night was underpaid

Use the government’s pay and work rights complaint route to report minimum-wage underpayment. Enforcement can require arrears and a penalty of up to 200% of the underpayment, and the employer can be publicly named. You receive the arrears, not the penalty. The Fair Work Agency was established on 7 April 2026. Its establishment does not change which on-call hours count.

Reporting minimum-wage underpayment and claiming unpaid contractual wages are different routes. The government’s timetable confirms that the usual GB tribunal time limit increased from three to six months on 1 October 2026. For an unlawful-deduction claim, work to six months less a day from the relevant unpaid payday and notify Acas for early conciliation before the deadline. Conciliation changes the calculation. Older deductions, a series of deductions and claims spanning the change need advice. Do not assume an expired claim has been revived.

A grievance, helpline call or enforcement complaint is not an Acas early conciliation notification and does not stop the tribunal clock. Use the time limits guide and deadline calculator, then have an adviser check the date. If your employer pays the legal minimum but withholds a contractual allowance, say that clearly when seeking advice.

If shifts disappear after you ask about pay, save the before-and-after rotas and messages and contact your union or adviser. Do not assume that being on a zero-hours contract leaves you without a route to challenge what happened.

What is changing, and what is not

This guide states the position as at 1 October 2026. The Employment Rights Act 2025 has not replaced the home-standby exception or the Mencap sleep-in rules. There is no general statutory right to disconnect, but that does not remove your contractual limits or rest rights. See out-of-hours contact and switching off.

1. October 2026Care pay negotiations scheduled

   Regulations to establish an Adult Social Care Fair Pay Agreement negotiating body in England are scheduled. This is not a new sleep-in rate you can demand. See the care fair pay agreement.

2. 2027Guaranteed-hours rights scheduled

   Guaranteed hours, reasonable shift notice and short-notice payments, including for agency workers, are not yet in force. Details and timings remain subject to consultation. See cancelled shifts.