Petrol crisis - advice to staff using cars for NHS work. A number of NHS Trusts have told staff that if the petrol crisis continues they will be asking staff to take paid annual leave.
This is unacceptable.
Employers have an obligation to pay staff who are available for work. They also are under a continuing duty to provide equipment and tools of the trade that are fit for the purpose. If staff do not have the tools to do the job - or simply cannot get to their work base, then the following steps should be taken by the employer:
Trusts should seek to ensure that community staff who use transport to do essential parts of their work - health visitors and community nurses, speech and language therapists, clinical psychologists, chaplains, scientists on call etc - are given priority access to petrol where this is possible
Where staff can get to their work base, they should do so where there is work to do
Where community staff cannot get to their work base, but can get to another centre, arrangements should made to work from there until the crisis is over
Where this is not possible, or where the Trust says staff do not have sufficient work to do, then they should be sent home on paid leave with no loss of earnings. Where shift or other allowances would normally have been paid then this should be paid.
It is not appropriate for staff to be asked to take paid annual leave.
Agenda for Change talks on new NHS pay system. For the last two months, talks on a new pay system have been suspended due to lack of clarification on two issues - linkage between different pay spines, and the extent to which the medical professional are to be covered by the new pay system. These issues have not been clarified, but the joint NHS unions have agreed the talks should resume in order to expedite the development of a new job evaluation scheme and negotiations on other issues of crucial interest such as harmonised terms and conditions, abolition of Trust contracts and extension of PRB status.
A more detailed summary of developments on the job evaluation scheme will follow next week.