On Call Payments

Kansas

I am part of an on-call rota in an IT Department in the NHS.  There are 5 of us who do a week on call at a time, but 3 of us are band 4, one is band 5 and one is a band 6.

The payment system is that you get a percentage of your salary for actually being on call and then you get a full hour pay for being called (even if it takes you 2 minutes to sort)

If I receive a call to say, reset someone's password then I get paid around £12 but my colleague on a band 6 might get £18.....this doesn't strike me as fair as surely we should be getting paid the same if we are doing the same job of 'on-call' 

What do people think?
Cheers

Dakta

Seems normal to me, a lot of people get different rates for the same work and there can be a lot of obvious and not so obvious factors for it (from technical skills to negotiating skills and such)

I would presume the occasions of being paid an hour for less than an hours work goes some way to help with the sense of unfairness.

[Deleted User]

That's how the system is set up to work. Your argument could be why is a band 6 post doing the work of a band 4, would they do this during the day, I doubt it.
I would debate whether the band 6 should be on the same on-call rota.

Andy_L

arctic_ghost said:

That's how the system is set up to work. Your argument could be why is a band 6 post doing the work of a band 4, would they do this during the day, I doubt it.

They probably do do some work at band 4 level during the day, just not all the time.

rctic_ghost said:
I would debate whether the band 6 should be on the same on-call rota.

Probably not, but if they weren't then everyone else would have to spend more time on-call. Whether that's good or bad depends on how much you value money vs social life/sleep

[Deleted User]

Andy_L said:

rctic_ghost said:
I would debate whether the band 6 should be on the same on-call rota.

Probably not, but if they weren't then everyone else would have to spend more time on-call. Whether that's good or bad depends on how much you value money vs social life/sleep

The on-call frequency is not what the op has issue with.

A band 6 JD will have little if any overlap with a band 4, they are completely different factor levels.

[Deleted User]

Op, is there an expectation that you provide on-call cover or are you contracted to do it?

getmore4less

What happens when the on call task is a band 6 skill set the band 4 can't do?

Savvy_Sue

And where I work, on call is on call is on call. Flat rate payment unrelated to anyone's salary.

It's so long since anyone has had to attend the premises that I can't remember if it's a further flat rate payment, or your normal hourly rate. But it makes no difference whether you're a manager or a non-manager: that's what we offer.

Kansas

Andy_L said:

arctic_ghost said:

That's how the system is set up to work. Your argument could be why is a band 6 post doing the work of a band 4, would they do this during the day, I doubt it.

They probably do do some work at band 4 level during the day, just not all the time.

rctic_ghost said:
I would debate whether the band 6 should be on the same on-call rota.

Probably not, but if they weren't then everyone else would have to spend more time on-call. Whether that's good or bad depends on how much you value money vs social life/sleep

I did think that, if we complain then they might take the higher banded folk off the on-call and

a) They would not be happy at us 4s for losing their cash cow
b) We'd end up being on call more 

TELLIT01

Perfectly normal, although I understand the annoyance at different rates for effectively the same job. 

I worked for various employers with varying systems.  One didn't want to pay for staff being on call at all - only pay if they were called out.  That didn't work as nobody would answer their phone (pre mobile phone days).  Another paid based on salary, as the OP detailed, and another had fixed rates. 

Kansas

getmore4less said:

What happens when the on call task is a band 6 skill set the band 4 can't do?

There isn't anything that the person on call should not be able to sort themselves (in theory)