Being sent to work with wrong/no contract (NHS student)

roz84

Hoping someone more knowledgeable than me will be able to give me some advice! I (alongside 3 others who are in the same situation) started a course in January, sponsored by my NHS trust, to train in an Allied Health Profession. It is a full time uni course, the trust is paying the fees and we are getting paid a "bursary" while we train. It states specifically in the contract that we all signed that "payment of the bursary is made for the purposes of full time study on the course and is not paid by the employer for the performance of work during the sponsored career break". There are no hours specified in this contract as we are full time students. If we were working full time (37.5 hours) then the bursary amount would be below the legal minimum wage.

So now we are in the position of our placements being cancelled due to coronavirus. That is fine and I totally understand the reasoning, however they are on about redeploying us to work on the wards and I don't feel that they can do this due to what is stated within our contracts. Can anyone give us some advice or point us in the direction of somebody that could help? 

roz84

Oh just to add I don't mind going to work on the wards if necessary, but not for less than minimum wage and none of the same benefits as the other staff! 

Andy_L

Have they said that they will redeploy you and only pay you the bursary rather than the appropriate AfC salary?

roz84

Not 100% sure yet but there is no contract with AFC salary or working hours in place! It says it's for a sponsored career break - they would be wanting to do it under the current contract, which also states we don't get the same benefits (sick pay etc) 

JReacher1

They’ll pay you the right salary to work on the ward. The last thing the government wants is headlines saying they are exploiting student nurses. 

Manxman_in_exile

I ceased being involved in NHS training many years ago, but I'd be surprised if it's changed that much.

You aren't employed by anybody so the national minimum wage is irrelevant.  The bursary is intended to be a "contribution" to your living costs as a full time student.  When you are on a clinical placement (in the normal run of events) your role is meant to be a supernumary one and you aren't actually "working" - you're gaining practical clinical experience.

There seems to be talk of final year medical students and final year student nurses being co-opted (in some way) into the wider NHS workforce during the current pandemic.  That's actually quite a serious step and if (or when) it happens, it will need to be done properly.  I suspect that will mean you will have to do so as an unpaid volunteer or, more likely, you'll be paid a salary in accordance with AfC that reflects your current skills/knowledge/experience and which has been agreed nationally - not by your trust.

But I could be entirely wrong - depends how bad it gets...

Also, I've heard no mention of AHPs - just medics and nurses.

Are none of you student or affiliate members of the appropriate professional body?  Try asking them.

roz84

I have been in contact with unison about this - no reply as yet, but the money (not wages) that we currently receive for being students is the equivalent of about 20 hours work if they wanted to be fussy. But they're saying that we need to just go to work for 37.5 hours and we'll sort out all the contractual pay afterwards!!!

Manxman_in_exile

You need to stop comparing the bursary you get with a wage or salary - it's neither.  You are not employed by anyone and it has no relation to any work you do.  I'm sure you can't be made to work in the NHS during the current pandemic (you have no "employer" to order you to work) so if you are unhappy with the arrangements that are agreed (or remain to be agreed), then simply don't do it. 

I know the current situation is highly unusual and pretty much unforeseeable, but if it becomes as bad as some people are suggesting, and you are going to get wound up about getting paid, then you may want to reconsider the NHS as a choice of career.  Of course, if working the equivalent of full-time in the NHS prevents you from doing a paid job which you need to put food on the table, that's a different matter - but you haven't mentioned anything like that.

Who are the "they" you keep referring to?  Your fellow students; your university; your local trust; the NHS locally; the NHS nationally; mainstream media; social media?  And are you sure it includes AHP students?

I'd stop worrying about it and see what happens...

roz84

The "they" is the management at the trust where I work. If I'm going back to the wards I just want to be correctly paid for doing so, and currently I won't be.

roz84

I'm worried from the point of view of if something goes wrong (say I get injured at work/a patient gets injured in my care god forbid) then there will be no protection for me as an employee because technically I'm not one, although they are saying that I am - even though I don't have a proper contract. They're basically saying don't worry about it and we'll sort it out later.

Savvy_Sue

roz84 said:

They're basically saying don't worry about it and we'll sort it out later.

I can understand you'd be a bit wary about this, but frankly right now there's a lot which needs to be sorted out, and this being a 'later' priority doesn't seem unreasonable.

What does the professional body say? They'll have a lot more clout than you do.