08.09.14
NHS faces expensive bill in holiday pay blunder
Many nursing staff in Scotland have received the incorrect rates of holiday pay over several years, leaving the NHS facing a backdated bill worth millions of pounds.
Nurses and other healthcare workers are supposed to be paid “as at work” when on leave. This means that in addition to basic pay they are entitled to the extra payments they usually receive, such as shift allowances for working anti-social hours.
The rules changes were introduced in 2008 but have not been implemented in some areas, despite the Scottish government writing to health boards at the time to advise them of the new policy.
Reviews are now ongoing across Scotland, with backdated payments expected to leave the NHS with a bill that could run into tens of millions of pounds.
In NHS Lanarkshire, a review found there had been "no consistent approach" to how nursing staff were paid while on leave since 2008, with the result being that many staff had been underpaid. So far, a review into nurses' pay has established that 1,498 are owed a combined £1.5m.
Reviews of a further 3,300 cases are set to be carried out this year in Lanarkshire, meaning that if the results of the first reviews are repeated, the health board will have to make payouts of almost £5m to staff.
An NHS Lanarkshire spokesperson said: “The NHS has always recognised the requirement to pay staff as if at work. Revised guidance on how to do this was issued and implemented in 2008. While staff continued to receive payment for enhancements during leave after that date, internal investigations found that complexities in calculating this meant some staff were not always receiving an amount that fully reflected their pattern of working enhanced hours.
“NHS Lanarkshire has worked closely with staff side to find the best way to address what can be a complicated area and new guidance was issued at the start of 2014. We are currently reviewing the pay of each staff member potentially affected, making back payments to October 2008 where these are found to be due. This has been factored into our financial plans.”
Elsewhere, Unison has told The Herald Scotland that NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, Scotland’s largest health board, has already paid out £2m to 3,000 Glasgow staff members, with more to follow.
Meanwhile, NHS Fife has paid £450,000 to 1,000 nursing and midwifery staff and NHS Ayrshire and Aram, NHS Tayside and NHS Grampian are currently conducting reviews.
While reviews so far have focused on nurses, all staff, other than doctors and senior managers, are covered by terms of the Agenda for Change pay scheme.
Tom Waterson, chair of Unison Scotland's Health Committee, said: “Health boards are aware that they should have been making these payments since 2008 but senior managers have withheld money to alleviate issues with finance. In other cases it hasn't been paid due to incompetence. But they have known this was coming and now we're talking about a fortune.”
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