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Are 37 hour shifts legal....?

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Mighty.Panda

Junior Member
Hello I am a careworker in the UK that is contracted to do 37.5 hours work per week. We have a new manager that has bought in 2 new changes which we feel might be highly illegal.

The first is an altered sleep-in shift. Before the changes we did 2pm day1 until 11pm then "slept" on site between 11pm and 7am and worked again until 2pm day 2. All in all this was a 24 hour hard shift because no one really expects us to be able to sleep during our 8-hour stand down because we have people people screaming, crapping themselves, biting people and attacking each other all night (we're also alone at this time i.e. i'm lone working all by myself). Now the manager has extended this 24 hour shift and we are now essentially going to be on our feet from 2pm on day 1 until 8pm on day 2 and they are even trying to implement 7am on day 1 right through to 8pm on day 2. We are expected to drive clients in vehicles and administer highly dangerous medication whilst we have potentially been awake 35+ hours. This is extremely dangerous and is going to get people hurt or killed..... But is it legal?

The second change is that we don't think we're getting any days off.... Our "day off" will always involve waking up on site at 7am after a 14 hour shift, staying until around about 8:30-9:00am to shower and feed the clients and then going home (to sleep because we will have been awake all night....) and then we're expected to be back in at 7am again. Is this really a day off? It's not even 24 hours...
 


TigerD

Senior Member
Hello I am a careworker in the UK that is contracted to do 37.5 hours work per week. We have a new manager that has bought in 2 new changes which we feel might be highly illegal.

The first is an altered sleep-in shift. Before the changes we did 2pm day1 until 11pm then "slept" on site between 11pm and 7am and worked again until 2pm day 2. All in all this was a 24 hour hard shift because no one really expects us to be able to sleep during our 8-hour stand down because we have people people screaming, crapping themselves, biting people and attacking each other all night (we're also alone at this time i.e. i'm lone working all by myself). Now the manager has extended this 24 hour shift and we are now essentially going to be on our feet from 2pm on day 1 until 8pm on day 2 and they are even trying to implement 7am on day 1 right through to 8pm on day 2. We are expected to drive clients in vehicles and administer highly dangerous medication whilst we have potentially been awake 35+ hours. This is extremely dangerous and is going to get people hurt or killed..... But is it legal?

The second change is that we don't think we're getting any days off.... Our "day off" will always involve waking up on site at 7am after a 14 hour shift, staying until around about 8:30-9:00am to shower and feed the clients and then going home (to sleep because we will have been awake all night....) and then we're expected to be back in at 7am again. Is this really a day off? It's not even 24 hours...
You know, it is unfortunate. But there is absolutely nothing that makes it illegal in any state for a UK careworker to be scheduled 37 hours shifts by a UK company in the UK. Amazingly, they could nail your feet to floor and prevent you from ever leaving and not break a single a American law. Fancy that.

DC
 

quincy

Senior Member
This site is designed to answer U.S. law questions only. With 50 states, and different laws in each of them, that alone keeps the volunteers busy. It would be impossible for us to cover the laws of all other countries as well.

For information on U.K. employment law, you will need to seek out a U.K. attorney or U.K.-based legal forum.

Good luck.
 

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