Shift Cancelled - I was not told

racrichardson

Good morning
I booked a shift yesterday at a hospital through the Employee Online access (Bank Duties) for work today (shift 9.00 - 17.00) only to find when I arrived that the building I was told to report to was empty and no-one was working there.  I even got security to let me in to the building just to make absolutely sure, and showed her my booking to ensure I was reporting to the correct place.
As I wasn't told the shift had been cancelled, and I had acquired expense to arrive there, I am wondering what my position is, please.

tacpot12

Regardless of your rights in this situation, you need to ask why you were sent to a building that was closed.

You should ask for your expenses to be paid and to be paid for your travelling time (normally this wouldn't be payable and this is fair when you are able to do your contracted shift, but when you can't because of a mistake the the agency or their client made, then paying for your travel time is reasonable). If the agency won't pay this, complain. Be reasonable, be polite, but be firm. You should check your contract with the agency to see if it states what will happen in cases such as you experienced. Normally what the contract says is what would apply. 

If the contract is silent on the matter, you can ask the agency to be reasonable, and you might be able to compromise if you live a long way from the site (they might pay you for 1 hour of travel but not the two hours it took you to get there and back) In theory, you could take this to an employment tribunal, but I suspect that it won't be worth the effort and you might just have to right it off. If the agency does it again, I would stop working for them until they start paying you for you travel and time wasted. 

General_Grant

It sounds as though this is not a nornal agency worker situation.  I think the OP is employed by the NHS on their bank system.

racrichardson

Thank you for your comment, tacpot12  - I will ask when I go in on Tuesday as I am also a volunteer.  Unfortunately, however, I do not have a employment contract.
Yes, you are right, General - I have just recently started working at a vaccination centre, and was also able to apply for bank shifts, and this would have been the first of those shifts.

JamoLew

racrichardson said:

Good morning
I booked a shift yesterday at a hospital through the Employee Online access (Bank Duties) for work today (shift 9.00 - 17.00) only to find when I arrived that the building I was told to report to was empty and no-one was working there.  I even got security to let me in to the building just to make absolutely sure, and showed her my booking to ensure I was reporting to the correct place.
As I wasn't told the shift had been cancelled, and I had acquired expense to arrive there, I am wondering what my position is, please.

Who told you where to go ?

Is that part of the system or do you get an independent message ?

Did you contact anyone at the time to ask ?

Sounds like it could be a communication error in that you weren't given the correct location

racrichardson

Thanks for your message. 
I booked the shift online yesterday, and that stated where I needed to go for the shift today.
I asked security when I arrived and found that the door to the building was locked, and she told me that there was nowhere else apart from where I was, and that I was definitely in the correct location for the shift as I showed her the booking.

theoretica

That doesn't sound to me as though the shift was cancelled.  Sounds like the system for some reason let you book a shift which didn't exist.  As it was your first shift, I would want to check first that the system has been correctly set up for you.

Manxman_in_exile

racrichardson said:

Thank you for your comment, tacpot12  - I will ask when I go in on Tuesday as I am also a volunteer.  Unfortunately, however, I do not have a employment contract.
Yes, you are right, General - I have just recently started working at a vaccination centre, and was also able to apply for bank shifts, and this would have been the first of those shifts.

Sorry (don't want to be picky) but just to clarify - you are an unpaid volunteer and are volunteering at a vaccination centre, and you don't have a separate paid employment with that NHS employer?  (So the shift that was cancelled and that you turned up for was in a wholly voluntary capacity?).

Obviously you need to clarify with whoever is organising these shifts what exactly has gone wrong, and if I were you I'd complain about the confusion and I'd point out the inconvenience and expense this has put you to.  Presumably without the continued goodwill of volunteers like yourself the national vaccination programme would be slowed down somewhat.

I may be wrong but I doubt you'll have much chance, as a volunteer, of reclaiming your wasted expenses (if that's what you want to do).  There won't be a budget to pay for it.  But if you want to try, you can't lose anything by asking.  You may find a sympathetic manager.

By the way, I am totally amazed that you don't have any agreement on paper about your service in a voluntary capacity.   When I was a NHS manager all our volunteers had honourary contracts spelling out both their rights and responsibilies and those of the host trust.  I would have thought any host NHS organisation not having contracts in place for its volunteers was taking an unjustifiable and unwarranted risk on all sorts of levels...

(We would not have allowed anyone to provide services on our behalf - whether paid or voluntary - without some sort of written agreement in place.)

General_Grant

Manxman_in_exile said:

racrichardson said:

Thank you for your comment, tacpot12  - I will ask when I go in on Tuesday as I am also a volunteer.  Unfortunately, however, I do not have a employment contract.
Yes, you are right, General - I have just recently started working at a vaccination centre, and was also able to apply for bank shifts, and this would have been the first of those shifts.

Sorry (don't want to be picky) but just to clarify - you are an unpaid volunteer and are volunteering at a vaccination centre, and you don't have a separate paid employment with that NHS employer?  (So the shift that was cancelled and that you turned up for was in a wholly voluntary capacity?).

Obviously you need to clarify with whoever is organising these shifts what exactly has gone wrong, and if I were you I'd complain about the confusion and I'd point out the inconvenience and expense this has put you to.  Presumably without the continued goodwill of volunteers like yourself the national vaccination programme would be slowed down somewhat.

I may be wrong but I doubt you'll have much chance, as a volunteer, of reclaiming your wasted expenses (if that's what you want to do).  There won't be a budget to pay for it.  But if you want to try, you can't lose anything by asking.  You may find a sympathetic manager.

By the way, I am totally amazed that you don't have any agreement on paper about your service in a voluntary capacity.   When I was a NHS manager all our volunteers had honourary contracts spelling out both their rights and responsibilies and those of the host trust.  I would have thought any host NHS organisation not having contracts in place for its volunteers was taking an unjustifiable and unwarranted risk on all sorts of levels...

(We would not have allowed anyone to provide services on our behalf - whether paid or voluntary - without some sort of written agreement in place.)

That's not the way I was reading the OP.  They are volunteering for work at the vaccination centre but could also access the staff shift booking area of an NHS organisation's website/intranet. 

They didn't say anything about the paperwork for voluntary work only that they didn't have an employment contract.

By the way, if it had been a voluntary role then I would still have expected there to be some kind of budget for volunteer expenses.  

Sadly NHS HR departments do not have a terribly good reputation for efficiency.

racrichardson

Thanks for the advice, everyone.
I'm sorry for the confusion regarding my work at the vaccination centre - the work at the vaccination centre is paid, hence why I could access the employee online service. 

The work today would have been paid, not voluntary.

I will definitely double-check any shifts I book in the future to make sure that they actually exist before I turn up for work.

I appreciate all the advice I have been given and will take it all on board.  I did have to sign a contract when I became a volunteer, but this was something completely different because I did not have access to the employee online service before I undertook paid employment at the vaccination centre.  

Boa21

Some organisations will pay x hours (often 4) if it was their fault.
Worth asking