Glasgow & West of Scotland Group Meetings The Annual Quiz attracted the highest number of teams for some years, with 14 teams from around the West of Scotland taking part. After discussion with the speakers, the CPD meeting planned for March was cancelled due to the low number of members registering their interest in attending. An extra meeting on Agenda For Change and addressed by Michael Fuller and Bob McArtney, GHP President was held on 20th March. This attracted around 60-70 people and was very successful in informing attendees of the basics of Agenda For Change and the specifics around pharmacy. The message to members is that they need to be informed and have a pharmacist rep in their department. The next meeting will be the Annual General Meeting which will take place on 1st May 2003 and not 10th April as appears in the syllabus.
There was some discussion on AfC and a comment that there was no reason why the annual leave provisions could not be rolled out immediately to all staff.
The meeting was then addressed by Barrie Brown, Amicus negotiator on AfC. He outlined the current situation with AfC and noted that the Knowledge and Skills Framework was now on its 6th draft. The second edition of the Job Evaluation Handbook would be issued at the end of March and the third edition at the end of April. Profiles were still being revisited. Unison has announced that it intends to hold a two vote ballot and the TGWU are apparently thinking about doing the same. It was noted that the number of points only places te post in a particular band. The assimilation process decides where in that band each person will be placed. Apparently, the reason for the difference inthe unsocial hours for Pay Band 8 is because it is considered that the higher salary already compensates to some extent. He statedthat being on-call did not mean being present within the Trust. However, for patyment purposes, the call lasts from the minute the staff member leaves the house until the minute they arrive back home and will be paid at the overtime rate of time and a half. B Brown also stated that the voluntary nature of the commitment has not gone and that there are no changes to contractual agreements.
Recruitment and Retention Premia (R+RP) need to apply to all staff in a particular group and are being used to replace allowances no longer available or not recognised in the Job Evaluation Package. St Johns in Livingston and the former HCI in Clydebank are to shadow the early implementers as a paper exercise. They were chosen because the former works on an integrated basis and the latter worked outside the NHS. The issue of term-time working has yet to be addressed.
Colin Rodden 24 March 2003