By Derek Kotz
Industrial reporter

CARE unions reacted angrily to a Supreme Court ruling today that workers are not entitled to the minimum wage for part of their “sleep-in” shifts.

Judges upheld a Court of Appeal decision that carers must receive the minimum wage only for the time when they are required to be awake for work, not when sleeping or resting.

Demanding an urgent change in the law to protect already low-paid workers, unions and opposition leaders said that the case underlined a need for root-and-branch reform of the care sector, which is floundering after years of neglect, underfunding and privatisation.