Message from The Branch Committee.
Dear Member,
The Branch Committee would like to clear up certain points regarding the publication sent out by Unite the Union, which appears to be a scathing attack on the negotiations which have taken place by ourselves and, in particular, our Branch Secretary.
We would like to clarify for our members the position on each issue negotiated.
RELIEF POLICY.
The branch would not agree to change the relief policy, it has remained the same but with further clarification at the start of the policy. The additional clarification added was that core rota line staff, when on their relief weeks, must be rostered at their base station.
ANNUAL LEAVE.
The Annual Leave policy has remained the same, stations are left to decide individually whether they wanted relief or leave in the rotas. There is no enforced annual leave in any station rotas and leave remains as it was at 20% abstraction, per station, not per CBU.
ROTAS.
Members can decide whether they want a 12 hour rota, a 10 hour rota or a mixture of the two.
We did not campaign to prevent staff working 12 hour rota patterns, as this would have been against the wishes of some member’s.
Any stations who want a rota review, due to issues now arising from working the new rota, can forward their alternative ideas to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Simon is at present working his way through North, Hull and East stations. He will then move onto Central and South. This may take between 8/10 weeks, but please be assured that if you have asked for a review of your rota, you will get it. We would however ask you to be patient as the requests are mounting daily and each one needs sufficient time spending on it to get the correct solution.
END OF SHIFT OVERTIME.
As a union we recognise the difficulty in balancing patient care and the wellbeing of staff, it is unrealistic to expect that an emergency service will not have a degree of end of shift overtime. As such we have agreed an ‘end of shift’ policy in an attempt to reduce the large scale overtime being worked by our members.
We are not asking for the overtime to be contractual but we believe that in employment law, where it is being done consistently by the same members, it could be. If we can establish that it is ‘contractual’ overtime then staff would have to be paid an average whilst on leave etc. Our rationale for pursuing that is to act as an incentive to the trust so that they do more to ensure staff get off on time and thereby avoid the extra cost.
ECAs.
The trust have reaffirmed that two ECAs will not work together. The branch will also be seeking a review of this role.
URGENT TIER.
The Trust have agreed to reinstate an urgent tier, there is work being done to agree how many staff will be required, their base stations and rota patterns. We will also be involved in discussions to decide the criteria for filling these positions. The trust, at our request, have agreed not to move any ECA’s from the stations they are currently based at until this work is done. It was also agreed that pay protection on unsocial hours payments will apply.
PROTECTED RUN BACK TIMES
A policy has been agreed whereby crew’s will be returned back to their areas, which is particularly important for rural stations.
This trial has started in North & East and will be implemented in Central and South from 1st July.
This is a trial in order to give us the opportunity to renegotiate should the current agreement not work, which we believe is the sensible option.
MEAL BREAKS
We recognise this as being a very emotive issue, for every member who wants two breaks on a 12 hour shift we have others who do not, the divide being around 50-50.
Members wanted the reduction of the window with the meal break completed between the 4th and 6th hour.
Much of the rationale for the second break, given by members, was around getting back into areas and thereby having a better chance of finishing on time. During negotiations we did not feel that we were at a stage to address the issue of two meal breaks until we had seen the effects of end of shift policy and the trial for the protected run backs.
Some members were undecided which meal break option they preferred, until they could the see how these other policies were working. We have not closed negotiations on the meal break options however we have reached the conclusion that in order to satisfy all our members on 12 hour shifts it may have to be on a station by station basis to choose either one break or two.
The members who attended the mass meeting made it very clear they have patient care at the forefront of their concerns. On each issue we have considered the wellbeing of members and patients and as such believe that what we have achieved is in line with their concerns.
With regard to staff safety, we wish to reinforce that UNISON have not agreed any changes to the Lone Worker Policy, as the Branch Committee feel that the current version remains fit for purpose for our members.
Our discussions continue with the Executive Director of People & Engagement and the Executive Director of Operations and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.
