working hours

shariatlanta

Just when I'd finally had my lightbulb moment and have started to get my debts cleared they are changing my working hours. I work 12 hour nights at my local hospital, sounds a lot but I only have to work 3 nights a week. They are also dropping the enhancement for night duty so if I carry on doing 12 shifts a month I will lose around £300, the only way round it is to do 3 extra shifts a month which doesn't sound much but as I've already taken on a second job to raise some extra cash it will mean that I will only have one day where I'm not at work.
Sorry to moan as I expect some of you do this already but it just seems no matter how hard you try something always goes wrong, oh well I'll get there one day.

Janey51

Do you work in the NHS or a private/independant hospital? Are you in a Union?If you are employed by the NHS I really don't see how this can be happening! I am a Union rep in an NHS Trust and it would be impossible for an NHS employer to act like this. This is a fundamental change to your terms and conditions and the sort of thing that makes me spit fire.
Can you give some more details?

summerday

Keep up your good work. Do look into whether they can do this as Janey suggests, but if you can't change it maybe give it a try for a few weeks. As long as you manage it without getting too burned out it will have the plus point that while you're so busy working all these days and nights you'll be too busy to go spending! Try to plan your time well so that you have regular (cheap) treats and things to look forward to in evenings that you're not working.

Once your debts are paid back it will really deter you to never get into debt again as you will really associate being in debt with long hours and hard work.

Take care,
Sarah.

tigerlily

Janey51 wrote:

Do you work in the NHS or a private/independant hospital? Are you in a Union?If you are employed by the NHS I really don't see how this can be happening! I am a Union rep in an NHS Trust and it would be impossible for an NHS employer to act like this. This is a fundamental change to your terms and conditions and the sort of thing that makes me spit fire.
Can you give some more details?

I work for the NHS and supposedly under agenda for change we have now been told that should we be unable to come into work due to snow fall (it is a very rural area, it takes me an hour to get to work through steep hills and narrow lanes which are never treated in bad weather) we lose the days pay, even if the police have advised people not to travel, can they just do this??

john_kent

Some employers deserve to be shot.

Personally I would look for something else. At my old company , they started forcing us to work Xmas day as even though there was no work , we were schedulked to work . For the previous 15 years , we had a skeleton shift in.People go the hump and staretd doing sickies etc......

Basically , they followe dthe "Due Process" for all instances. This included taking regular breaks as schedlued rather then working flat out to get work done.

They shut us down un the end , but legal wranglings are still ongoing two years later.

Look at all your T and C`s and see if they are doing things they shouldnt. PLAY THE GAME

pseudopensioner

If you continue to work the 3 nights you will receive 25% fixed enhancements, this is also paid for annual leave and for periods of sickness.

The various unions and professional bodies are reviewing the way the enhancements are worked out and a new deal is expected to be in force in October I believe.

Therefore you will NOT lose your enhancements, they will just be paid differently.

Hope this helps.

FieryBlondeScot

what is the standard pay on top of your basic wage for shiftwork? i currently work 35hrs a week (7 hr shifts) and my firm is trying to get us to do 12 hr shifts of 3 days on 4 days off then 4 days off 3 days on. my basic wage is 24k, is there a fixed increase for changing to 12hr shifts?

Janey51

tigerlilyUnder our previous (Whitley) terms and conditions it was the much abused "Management Discretion" that dictated how you were treated if bad weather prevented you getting into work. Every hospital trust should now have Special Leave policies in place which cover bad weather problems. It is usually either take annual leave, pay the time back by working extra or decide to give up a day's pay. The Unions would be very concerned if an employee was not given the opportunity to come to an arrangement with their manager rather than lose a day's pay if they were prevented from attending work through no fault of their own.
As for the thorny question of enhanced hours....its still being negotiated at the top!
I am in the same position as you and have to drive an hour to work, often in very treacherous conditions. I always book the last week of the holiday year as holiday so that if I am unable to get to work, I can use some of this "saved" holiday.

tigerlily

Janey51 wrote:

tigerlilyUnder our previous (Whitley) terms and conditions it was the much abused "Management Discretion" that dictated how you were treated if bad weather prevented you getting into work. Every hospital trust should now have Special Leave policies in place which cover bad weather problems. It is usually either take annual leave, pay the time back by working extra or decide to give up a day's pay. The Unions would be very concerned if an employee was not given the opportunity to come to an arrangement with their manager rather than lose a day's pay if they were prevented from attending work through no fault of their own.
As for the thorny question of enhanced hours....its still being negotiated at the top!
I am in the same position as you and have to drive an hour to work, often in very treacherous conditions. I always book the last week of the holiday year as holiday so that if I am unable to get to work, I can use some of this "saved" holiday.

Thank you for that, this was announced last week at work so theres a bit of hoo-ha about it all at the moment. To be honest I'd be really p'ed off at having to lose a days holiday for a day,for example, the police had advised people not to travel. Luckily the "snow days" so far have been on days I had not been working.

shariatlanta

The change hasn't been officially decided yet but they are going back to 3 different shifts, 7-3, 1-9 and the night shift will be 9-7, it's been said it's because of high sickness levels but personally I feel if you have to work more often in a sometimes very stressful enviroment ( it's a maternity unit ) your more likely to go off sick.

I'ts an NHS hospital and I'm not in the union, should be really.

Lydia.42

Lydia's OH here..... just to fill you in "agenda for change" as it is called, is the biggest shafting that has ever happened to NHS staff. As an Ambo bod my basic pay is being cut by £3k a year, (apparently, now I am finally getting an unsocial hours payment this is all legal) my shift pattern is being adjusted so as to reduce the amount of unsocial hours payment we will recieve and we are getting our breaks cut and not paid for.... most days we will only get ONE 30 min break in a 12hr shift! :wall:

Before anyone says "thats illegal" or "they can't do that" etc,. this has all been approved by our union (UNISON = Labour lap-dogs) and will take effect as of 1/04/06. They are claiming that as I will supposedly be getting an extra £75/pm, the drop in basic wages doesn't matter and pay protection doesn't apply, we have already had people refused mortgages because of this, many peoples career paths have been set back by up to 5 years, as you can imagine morale is at an all time low. But has there been any publicity about it????? no way - we were going to arrange a Demo in London in March to raise awareness but the Union have put a stop to it!!! :mad: the police and Fire & rescue service wouldnt have to stand for this but the good old ambulance service will roll over and take what they're given..... If anyone feels like contacting their local press about it feel free (I can lose my job if I go to the papers!!!).

Maybe soon the AA will be promoted to the 3rd emergency service

If you see an ambulance person, be nice to them....they need it.... :kisses: