Shift cancellation at short notice

caxia

Hi MSEs
I work as a nurse in a small hospital. I do night duty and am employed as a bank nurse. Quite often I have a shift cancelled at short notice, even as late as 1 hour before I am due to start if patient numbers drop. So I obviously dont receive any pay, and have spent the day psyching myself up for staying up all night.
Do any other employers do similar things to their staff? Or do any have a cut off time for cancelling shifts.
Thanks.

Dizzy_Ditzy

a bank is effectively an agency and they can do what they like with regard to cancelling shifts :-(

Spitroast

is there anything in your contract, statement of employment or employee handbook about it? they are meant to specify things like this ..although mine just says 'you will be given reasonable notice for shift changes' and when I asked HR what was meant by 'reasonable notice they said 'it's up to your manager'.

caxia

No there is nothing in my contract. I suppose I shall just put up with it as the hospital is close by and I have to do bank work to fit in school holidays while kids are small. The annoying thing is I wouldnt dream of cancelling my shift at short notice myself as that would leave my co-workers and patients at a disadvantage. Ho hum.

DVardysShadow

caxia wrote: »

No there is nothing in my contract. I suppose I shall just put up with it as the hospital is close by and I have to do bank work to fit in school holidays while kids are small. The annoying thing is I wouldnt dream of cancelling my shift at short notice myself as that would leave my co-workers and patients at a disadvantage. Ho hum.

This is a sauce for geese and ganders type issue. I think I would be asking them to indicate who much notice you can give to turn down a shift and expecting them to treat you similarly. It is rather rough to prepare for a night shift and be turned down at an hours notice.