12.01.15
DH looks to cut NHS staff unsocial hours payments
NHS staff in England could lose their ‘unsocial hours’ payments for working evenings, nights and weekends under major proposed changes aimed at reducing costs and introducing a 24/7 “modern NHS system”.
The plans, submitted as part of the Department of Health evidence to the NHS Pay Review Body, also take aim at progression pay, which the DH believes should be altered to reflect modern employment practice.
According to DH figures, unsocial hours and shift work, not counting overtime, already costs £1.8bn a year for such workers.
The report says: “The way that the week is separated into ‘plain time’ and ‘unsocial hours’ within Agenda for Change is archaic and out of line with a 24 hours, seven days a week, modern NHS system and most importantly, the needs of patients. Reformed employment contracts should put patients at the heart of everything the NHS does, rewarding staff that make the greatest contribution to patient care, and which provide premium pay rates that reflect modern employment practices better aligned to patient need, and more sustainable to support the NHS of the future.”
It continues: “Unsocial hours and progression pay are two of the most important provisions within Agenda for Change for helping employers ensure staff are available to care for patients outside ‘office hours’ and to reward staff for what they do for patients – not for time served. We also invite the Pay Review Body to give some consideration to whether the current structure of progression pay reflects modern employment practice and meets our ambition of putting patients first.”
Options outlined by the DH include removing unsocial hours payments for working on Saturdays and Sundays; only axing those for working Saturdays; lowering rates for Sundays and bank holidays; changing night-shift starts from 8pm to 10pm; and ‘rewarding’ staff for flexibility in working hours, perhaps along the lines of the AA, where pay levels reflect how readily staff are prepared to work any shift within a 24-hour period.
Paramedics and ambulance stuff, who currently have different out-of-hours agreements and receive shift-working payments, could also find those bought into line with other staff under the new arrangements.
Christina McAnea, head of health at Unison, said: “By raising the prospect of further cuts, the government will simply worsen what is already a big problem for the NHS – how to recruit and hold on to enough skilled healthcare staff to provide the services we all rely on.”
She added: “If these extra payments are cut, not only would staff suffer directly but it would also be difficult for the NHS to get cover for evenings and weekends.
“NHS workers now feel so taken for granted that many say they want to leave – these plans could prove the last straw.”
Unions are already unhappy with the government after its decision to institute a below-inflation 1% non-consolidated pay rise, which the 600,000 staff who receive progression pay increases over 1% will not receive. The government ignored the recommendations of the NHS Pay Review Body, which specifically said that a non-consolidated pay award could have an “adverse impact on staff engagement and motivation” and recommended against it.
A joint statement from NHS trade unions in December announced two new rounds of strike action on 29 January and 24 February
In October it is estimated about 400,000 staff and six unions took part in the first round of strikes. Nine unions took part in the second round of action in November and it appears it will continue to escalate.
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