Hospital staff won't get extra pay for working jubilee bank holiday

WHILE many Bristolians will be making the most of the additional bank holiday, hospital staff working shifts that day will not receive any extra pay.

The city's hospital trusts have decided not to pay staff extra for working on Tuesday's diamond jubilee public holiday.

They have taken the decision under guidance from NHS Employers, which supports employers within the health service.

Staff who work on Tuesday will get their usual payments while those working on Monday will receive a bank holiday payment.

Employees working on both bank holidays will be entitled to a paid day off in lieu of working.

Hospital trusts said that staff who were not required to work to ensure the smooth running of health services across the bank holiday weekend were able to take the extra day off, as with any other public holiday.

Union Unite has written to the Queen on behalf of its health services members who will not be benefiting from the extra public holiday.

They published a list of the 113 trusts they had heard would not be paying staff extra for working on Tuesday, which included North Bristol NHS Trust (NBT) and University Hospitals Bristol NHS Trust (UHBristol), saying that NHS members were "behaving in a mean-spirited fashion in treating the bank holiday as a normal working day".

Weston Area Health Trust was not on the list, but has confirmed it also will not be paying staff extra.

At UHBristol, the trust treated the additional bank holiday in the way it did last year's Royal Wedding which means any staff who could not take the day off would receive the usual Tuesday shift payment and lieu day.

A spokeswoman for NBT, which runs Frenchay and Southmead hospitals and the Yate Minor Injuries Unit, said: "NBT is one of the South West's biggest employers with 10,000 staff and, like any other business, an extra bank holiday inevitably creates an additional cost to the trust.

"As with any bank holiday or weekend most services in our hospitals will continue to run as usual including emergency care. The A&E department at Frenchay Hospital is likely to be extremely busy over the bank holiday period caring for people with serious conditions and we would like to remind the public that in order to get the most effective help, members of the public should consider whether it is more appropriate to seek help from their GP out-of-hours service or use one of the other health services such as NHS Direct, the GP-led health centre or a Minor Injuries Unit."

Great Western Ambulance staff have bank holidays factored in to their unsociable hours contract added to their salary. They will also receive an additional 7.5 hours holiday for the extra bank holiday.