night hand

plural night hands

1. A laborer who works the overnight shift.

   [...] our night hands tell not what our day hands have been doing! And they do plenty.

   1934, H.F. Ritchie, “Men Have Funny Ideas...”, in Movie Classic (Jan-Jul 1934), page 58

   1 more example

   When disorderly persons are filling the streets, the night sets are steadily at their work. In point of fact, our night-hands are quite as steady and respectable as any other.

   1834, Factories Inquiry Commission: Supplementary Report of the Central Board of H. Maj. Commissioners appointed to collect Information in the Manufacturing Districts, as to the Employment of Children in Factories, and as to the Propriety and Means of Curtailing the Hours of their Labour; ordered to be printed 25 March 1834. 2, page 124