Draft Principles for Harmonisation of On-call arrangements out for Consultation: Unite to Ballot Members

Following 2 years of discussions, negotiations and data collection, the NHS Staff Council have issued draft principles for the harmonisation of on call arrangements for consultation.

The main outcome within the principles is that it has not been possible to develop a one size national agreement covering all on call work. Instead much of the detail will be left to local partnerships (management and staff sides within each organisation) to determine.

Key issues within the draft principles include:

• The definition of on call. This is work that is done outside of standard hours on an ‘as and when required’ basis.
• The principle of equal pay meaning that each organisation will have to develop a single on call payment scheme for all members of staff providing on call duties within that organisation
• There should be a commitment payment based on frequency of on call provision
• Work done whilst on call will be paid at the appropriate hourly rate as set out in section 2 of the Terms and Conditions handbook and will be payable to all bands of staff
• Compensatory rest (in line with European Working Time Directive) should be given if called into work
• Covering a bank holiday will attract a day in lieu, irrespective of work done
• Travel time to work counts as part of the call out time.
• Local partnerships should consult with NHS Pensions to determine if on call payments are pensionable
• Transitional arrangements are to be determined locally

GHP have raised a number of issues throughout the last 2 years, via the Unite On Call Reference Group, relevant to pharmacists providing on call duties. Some of these issues have been covered in the draft principles. One area that remains a concern is the definition of on call being one that is based on an ‘as and when required’ basis. Pharmacists currently provide an emergency duty commitment to deal with unforeseen issues that arise outside of normal working hours. The decision as to what constitutes an emergency and necessitates the pharmacist returning to work is essentially one made by the pharmacist. Under the proposed definition this could mean that the caller determines the need and not the pharmacist.

The consultation period ends at 12 noon on 10^th September 2010. NHS organisations have been invited to submit responses to the draft principles, agreed in partnership, via the response form on the NHS Employers’ website. ** Individual staff members can also respond to the consultation via the NHS Employers website** NHS organisations have also been asked to start immediate preparatory work to collect and collate information about current on call systems and payments that are operated within their organisations. Local negotiations on new on call arrangements should not start until the outcome of the consultation process has been published (planned for early September) and they will need to be completed by the end of the protection period (31/03/11). However, since the outcome of the negotiations will result in a change to the terms and conditions of employment, the employee is entitled to a period of 90 days notice of any such changes. Therefore, to comply with this requirement, any new terms and conditions will need to be agreed by 31/12/10. If this deadline is missed, it is likely that the new agreements, once finalised, will be backdated to 1/04/11.

Unite will be balloting its NHS members on the draft principles with a likely recommendation to reject based on the definition of on call and the transitional arrangements outlined in the draft principles. The postal ballot will run from 9^th August to 8^th September. There will also be an on line member’s survey on the Unite website to allow members to express wider views on the draft principles. From September there will be local training and support for members in the expectation that local negotiations will take place.

Commenting on the draft principles, Dave Thornton, Chair of Terms and Conditions for GHP, said “the fact that there will not be a national agreement for on call is disappointing. Leaving the main issues of pay and pay protection to local negotiation could lead to a number of problems for our members. One of my key concerns is the potentially significant loss of earnings that could arise if management side try and use the interim pay arrangements for providing on call duties in the current Agenda for Change handbook. A couple of important things to be aware of are firstly, under the current protection arrangements, Emergency Duty Commitment payment has been protected by virtue of the fact that it is an on call payment. If this were not the case, the payment would have ceased in 2004 when the Agenda for Change agreement was implemented. Secondly even if provision of on call is not specified in your contract it may be deemed custom and practice and therefore a contractual arrangement. This is important for those individuals who may consider ceasing to undertake on call duties.” He added “as I have stated on a number of previous occasions, one of the main recommendations I would make to pharmacists is to get involved with the process. Within your own department, a staff representative should be nominated who will need to get involved with the local partnership group to ensure the pharmacists’ voices are heard. This can initially be done by contacting your organisation’s Staff Side lead and HR director and informing them that pharmacists provide on call cover. Once local negotiations start, their input into the process will also be crucial.