Graveyard shift
A graveyard shift is the overnight block: the one that runs through the middle of the night and finishes in the morning. It is a workplace name, not a term in the Working Time Regulations. The legal question is whether those hours are night work.
Night time, and who counts as a night worker
Unless a workforce agreement or a contract sets a different window, night time is 11pm to 6am. A night worker is someone who regularly works at least three hours of their daily working time during that night period. A 10pm to 6am close includes the whole default night. A 5am start may include only an hour or two, which is not three hours, so the label graveyard does not decide it. Regularly matters. One overnight to cover a holiday is not the same as a permanent night line.
A night worker’s normal hours must not exceed an average of eight hours in any 24-hour period. They should be offered a free health assessment before they start night work and at regular intervals after that. Young workers should not ordinarily work at night. Those are the protections. They are not a higher National Minimum Wage. GOV.UK says the minimum wage applies to night workers and that there is not a higher night working rate.
How the rota should show it
Put the overnight on the day it starts, with an end time the next morning. Shiftbrook treats an end earlier than the start as a shift that crosses midnight when you are measuring the length. The published shift is still one shift on one date. Staff need to see the finish, not a second row that looks like a new person arriving at midnight.
Any extra pay for working it is a night allowance in the contract, or it is nothing. This product does not store a rate and does not add a premium when the hours fall after 11pm. Record the hours, approve the timesheet, and download the CSV. The pay run is outside Shiftbrook. Rest still applies: eleven hours before the next shift for an adult, and the weekly rest, even when the shift had a dramatic name.
Sources
Night shift allowance · Shift work · Rest break calculator · Rotas