The legal action taken by Unison on behalf of 17 care workers in Haringey who claim they were paid below the minimum wage has been widely publicised and has potentially significant implications for the social care industry.

It's also the latest in a long line of conflicting legal cases that have grappled with issues around working time and pay – where a number of employers still decline to pay staff for certain types of non-core time or alternatively pay a fixed rate rather than an hourly rate based on the national minimum wage.