National minimum wage: National minimum wage payable for all "nightwatchman's" hours

Key points

• In Scottbridge Construction Ltd v Wright [2003] IRLR 21 the Court of Session upholds the EAT's decision that a "nightwatchman" who was required to be on his employer's premises for 14 hours each night was entitled to be paid the national minimum wage in respect of all those hours, even though, while required to respond to an alarm at any time, he only had to undertake specific tasks that took around four hours a night, and was permitted to sleep if he chose to when not carrying out those tasks.
• Regulation 15(1) (now amended) of the National Minimum Wage Regulations 1999 - which provides that, where a worker sleeps at or near a place of work, time during the hours he is permitted to sleep shall only be treated as time work when he is awake for the purpose of working - applies in cases where a worker is on call waiting to work, but not actually working.