A company in a highly competitive creative industry that took on a worker seeking to get her foot in the door and paid her "expenses only" was found in this case to have breached national minimum wage and working time legislation.
In this case, the industrial tribunal in Northern Ireland described a small employer's decision to dismiss a young worker to avoid having to increase her pay from £4.00 to the national minimum wage rate of £4.92, when she reached the age of 18, as "callous".
The Employment Appeal Tribunal has held that a sleep-in payment was not an allowance for the purpose of the national minimum wage. Therefore it should not be excluded from the calculation of the hourly rate paid by the employer.
The Employment Appeal Tribunal has held that the national minimum wage relates to a worker's basic rate of pay, even if he or she normally works only at night at an enhanced rate.
The Employment Appeal Tribunal has upheld an employment tribunal decision that an employee who was allowed to sleep for much of his shift, but had to deal with anything untoward that might arise, was entitled to be paid the national minimum wage for the whole shift.