Anyone do sleeps at work? advice needed

I used to do support work and am sure they should use "waking night" workers rather than sleepover in that situation, i.e. you would get paid your normal rate but would have to be up all night. Having said that, I don't know where you would find the legalities, hopefully someone else can help. CSCI might be a starting point? Sleepovers are infinitely preferable to night duty for many staff though (myself included!), which may be why your colleagues would rather take their chances and sleep when they can rather than be on official night shift.

So you are working 24 hours with, on some nights, less than 2 hours sleep?

Surely that's illegal.

I have actually mentioned waking nights to my manager , who said it is quite hard to establish.

She also said social services pay for it so wouldn't cost the service i work for and it would be a different set of staff , so we wouldn't be expected to do it.

When i mentioned it to my colleagues , they were concerned about money they would lose and would rather have a sleepless night and be paid , than finish at 10pm.

I just don't feel i can do it , i'm also pregnant so don't want to be looking for another job just yet.

Also i feel a little let down as when offered the job , lack of sleep was never mentioned.

Thankyou very much for your reply.

Exactly , but i just can't seem to find any laws regarding sleeps at work.

Don't you have to have a risk assesment because of your pregnancy?

Keep a diary of the time available for you to sleep, and show it your manager and if she does nothing then CSCI ( which changed it's name yesterday to Care Quality Commission) and ACAS.

I don't know how you manage all those hours on that little sleep. When I used to do sleep-ins it was 10pm - 5:30am then work 5:30 to 7:30 and I was so tired driving home I frequently had to pull the car over.

Thanks Haw haw.

I'm really not managing , i've got a sleep tommorrow and feel sick at the thought of it.

I was meant to have a risk assessment yesterday but it never happenned.

The thing is it isn't every night but usually 4 or 5 out of 7.

My manager doesn't seem to think it's unreasonable if she has you awake until 1am , 5am she does say is a problem.

I used to do sleep-ins in my previous job as a support worker. We worked till 10.30pm, then paid a flat rate till 7.30am. If we were needed to actually work more than an hour during the sleep in, we could claim for an hours pay at night rate on top of the sleep in rate. This only ever happened as an emergency though (such as one of the residents being ill or taken to hospital) as there was also a waking night staff.

If one of the residents needs help through the night then its unfair of them to pay just a sleep in rate. There is no way you should be expected to work through the sleep in.

There was something just before I went on mat leave which seemed to indicate that it was working time and that employers should pay the NMW for the whole shift. V onerous on employers, as most ones I have come across tend to pay a flat rate for the sleepover and then the NMW (or whatever the staff's hourly rate is) for times they are called on to work. I have been on mat leave for 6 months so can't remember specifics and don't have access to all the resources I had or if it has been appealed or not and brain is too mush to check it out for you, sorry but have a google and see what you can find.

Re being pg - if your MW says doing nightshift is detrimental to your health then your employer may have to find day shift hours for you.

Hats off to you for working so hard, but somewhere I feel that a proper sleep of atleast 5-6 hours is a must for body to perform actively and to come back at its bet after hours of work.

Thankyou so much for replying ladies , it's good to know that others think it is also unreasonable , as the other staff just seem to say "well she's never slept. ".

Jules.40 , there is a line in my contract to say , i am required to do sleeps on a rota basis , and that is it , it doesn't elaborate.

I've told my manager a few times now i just can't do it , she looks at me like i've got three heads.

We are currently doing a tick chart at my insistence , for how many times she disturbs us through the night. As i've said before the other staff said think of how much money you will lose if you don't do any sleeps, so i'm not at all confident that it will be filled in correctly.

I feel i'm hitting my head against a wall and fighting a battle alone.

I just want them to aknowledge it's a problem,

I feel like phoning in sick as i'm due to start a sleep at 10am.

Thankyou so much for your replies and sorry for the constant moaning.