RepsDirect
From amicus
- MSF
Head of Health, Roger Spiller General Secretary, Roger Lyons
Reps Direct should be forwarded by email to other members and put in
printed
form on the notice boards for all to see, both members and non-members.
No
171 –
Index ;
Agenda For Change, Working Time Regulations, Maternity Leave, AHP
Sharing Event
1. Communication
from Management Side Chair of the CNG
The attached letter shows that whatever problems
are shown up by the Early Implementer stage of AfC and indeed problems we
ascertain even before that, the DoH is keeping an open mind and door to
resolving them by agreement. This letter reflects many of the issues which
amicus has negotiating since November.
Following publication of the documentation for the proposed
agreement on Agenda for Change and the associated the three year pay deal, both
the management and staff sides have been holding meetings with colleagues in
the NHS. As we all expected, these meetings have thrown up a number of
questions about the operation of the proposed new system. Some of these can be
dealt with fairly readily, but others lead naturally into the question of what
changes could be made during the early implementation period if there are
shortcomings in the operation of the new system.
As you are aware, the proposals include a partnership
agreement under which the
A good example is the new system for rewarding staff who
work outside normal hours. Negotiations on the definitions and levels of
payment were conducted in good faith and were successfully concluded on the
basis of the available information about the working patterns of staff. They
took into account for example staff side colleagues’ desire for a harmonised
system and management side’s wish to make it easier to extend services for
patients into the evenings and weekends. We recognised during the talks that
this would have consequences – some staff would require pay protection, others
would have their payments enhanced.
Obviously we would want to look very carefully of all
aspects of the new pay system and how they are working in practice during the
early implementation stage. The partnership success criteria include both
greater innovation in the deployment of staff and implementation with only a
small minority of staff requiring pay protection. These criteria mean that just
as it would be legitimate for management to raise concerns in the Staff Council
if there were no innovative deployment of staff, so it would be legitimate for
staff side colleagues to raise concerns if more staff than expected required
pay protection.
With areas of the system like this which are very new, it is
impossible at this stage to anticipate what problems there might be, or how
widespread or significant such problems would be. We suspect that some of the concerns we have
heard expressed may be based on partial misunderstanding of the proposals. Some staff have, for example, compared
unsocial hours earnings under the new system with current earnings for months
in which they work significant weekend
shifts, not appreciating that the new system is averaging payments over all
months – including for example those where staff are on leave. But if we did find there are
significantly more staff than estimated currently working weekends, leading to
higher numbers than expected requiring pay protection, that would be a
legitimate issue to be addressed. Indeed, if there were difficulty staffing the
relevant services, we would expect both management and staff side to have a
mutual interest in dealing with the problem.
Another example is around job profiles. While we must be
honest in publishing profiles which reflect the jobs many people are currently
doing, even where that would result in a stand still in pay, there is no
problem in principle in defining higher level jobs into which the staff
concerned could develop, in line with the aim that the system should encourage
staff to take on new roles and reward them for doing so. Work is already underway in a number of areas
to have such profiles ready for the start of early implementation. In other
cases (especially where work is needed locally to identify such roles), the
work will need to take place during the early implementer phase.
These examples are not exhaustive. There are others on which progress is already
being made. There are areas such as the balance of incentives between on call
and shift working which we know will
need careful attention in the early implementer sites. And there are still
others which we have already identified as needing to be discussed in the Staff
Council, such as the case for creation of a ninth pay band for the small number
of professional staff with job weights above 720 for whom it may not be
appropriate to apply the same arrangements as are envisaged for Chief
Executives and Directors.
The negotiations were successfully concluded on this basis
and clearly we now need to make progress towards early implementation. We are ready to work constructively with you to
ensure that the new system both supports service modernisation and meets the
reasonable aspirations of staff. I very much hope that in that spirit those
staff organisations which have not yet decided to make a firm recommendation to
their members will soon do so, and that we can move forward together once the
consultation period is over.
Yours
sincerely
Ben
Dyson
Management Side Chair
Central Negotiating
Group
2.
Working Time Regulations
The move towards
creating on call systems which are compliant with the Working Time Regulations
continues.
The most
frequently asked question concerns being on call at home and what constitutes
working time.
By agreement the
NHS acknowledges that being in the workplace, albeit able to sleep, constitutes
working time for the full period. Being in residence with only infrequent
interruptions need not, (defined in
existing agreements on working time in the Terms & Conditions Handbook).
If you are at
home and able to pursue normal activities the working time starts when the
phone rings and finishes when you put the phone down or return home, depending
on what activity has taken place. The Guidance to
the Working Time Regulations clearly states that all periods of on call where
'normal activities' cannot be pursued are working time.
A case at the
European Court of Justice (Simap) confirmed that a doctor sleeping on the
premises was on working time even while asleep. It was a reported part of the
case that whilst being on call was not in itself working time, then neither
was it to be considered a period of rest.
This
has important implications for the design of on call rotas. All workers shall
have a minimum period of 11 consecutive hours break, this cannot be breached
even by collective agreement. The present agreement in the NHS fails to take
account of the ECJ case reached after the Whitely agreement on Working Time.
The
WTD is designed to protect workers Health & Safety, also to protect others
from the actions of someone who is fatigued and not able to respond as well as
they otherwise would. Further, breaking the WTR could lead to charges of
professional misconduct.
With more staff
becoming registered it is even more important for staff to observe the WTR. We
would urge you all to consider the most effective way of implementing the WTR.
To help in this
the Healthcare Science Group is, in conjunction with the DoH and reps of other unions, establishing a
working group to look at best practice and ways of producing WTR compliant on
call systems. Regional Officer Rachael Maskell is heading this Amicus
initiative.
3. Maternity Leave
Back in 2000
amicus put forward a claim to the DoH, in collaboration with the other General
Whitley Council unions, to ‘Modernise Maternity’. This was effectively a claim
to improve maternity leave and pay, paternity leave and pay and adoptive leave
and pay. The claim also seeks paid parental leave. Amicus secured the support
of Maternity Alliance and we are confident that the wording of the new agreements
will be much easier for members and reps to follow and implement.
Agenda for
Change put the claim on the back burner and in the meantime the Government
introduced notice of new and greatly improved rights.
To speed
negotiations along amicus recently met with the Minister of State for Health,
John Hutton, to discuss the GWC
Staff Side’s outstanding claims in relation to maternity, paternity, adoptive
and parental leave, and agreed a process.
John Hutton was very
receptive and appreciated the opportunity to talk about these important issues.
The meeting helped clarify that the claims were always intended to be
considered alongside Agenda for Change but were on hold by mutual agreement in
order that more complex issues of harmonisation could be progressed first.
John Hutton accepted that
the claims must be properly considered with a view to meaningful discussions
starting at the earliest opportunity."
The meeting was attended
Margaret Wall - National Policy Secretary, Gail Cartmail - National Secretary Equalities
and Barrie Brown - amicus Official on CNG
We are therefore still negotiating the claim.
Unfortunately some NHS employers are wrongly telling staff that from
HR Direcetors
Bulletin Note
New
statutory arrangements for maternity leave
In
Employers are asked to note that discussions are taking
place nationally regarding changes to the NHS contractual maternity leave
scheme set out in Section 6 of the General Whitley Council Handbook.
In the interim, pregnant employees staff who are eligible
under Section 6 of the GWC Handbook and who qualify for Statutory Maternity Pay
(SMP) should be advised of the increased statutory entitlements effective from
·
in addition to the current GWC Section
6 paid leave entitlement (in summary, 8 weeks at full pay, and 10 weeks at half
pay plus SMP), employees who qualify for SMP whose babies are due on or after 6
April 2003 will be entitled to a further 8 weeks statutory maternity pay (at
£100 per week, or 90% of earnings if less).
·
The increase in the SMP flat rate
payment from £75 per week to £100pw with effect from
Full details of the changes to the statutory provisions can
be found at the Department of Trade and Industry website http://www.dti.gov.uk/er/individual.htm.
For further information please contact Norma Bateson on 0113 254 5708 or mail to: Norma.Bateson@doh.gsi.gov.uk
ADVANCED NOTICE AND CALL FOR POSTERS
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