Why is the NHS so generous with their employee leave

[Ionlywentandbloodydidit]

Maybe I’m just jealous plain and simple.
I work really hard in a patient facing private sector clinical role ( not transferable to NHS) , long hours, huge amounts of stress and responsibility just like NHS workers . Four weeks holiday , no sick pay , no time off for GP, dentist appointments etc . Not just me , this is completely normal in my industry.
The NHS is on its knees , I see it every day , I’m privately employed but am also registered with NHS as a performer ( it’s complicated ) .
I have several friends who work within the NHS as nurses, midwife’s etc . They are all mostly on eight weeks holiday per annum , regularly on leave for months at a time on full pay for various reasons such as two months for a miscarriage, six months for the death of a very elderly parent or a bad back or stress etc.
They will all receive a good pension .
I’m so intrigued ( and envious I admit ) at how the NHS can be so generous with tax payers money.
Im ashamed to say I’m beginning to resent my NHS friends some of whom are quite brazen with it, especially when I also see first hand how long waiting lists are for consultations / ops for my own patients / family etc .

You get paid overtime, you don’t get that in most jobs in the private sector.

No need to repeat yourself.

i work for the NHS and do not get 8 weeks of leave. You only get that after 10 years of service. Also quite shocking you begrudge someone leave after a miscarriage?! It’s not a race to the bottom, make some choices to increase your happiness rather than bitching on other people.

I work extremely hard in a professional clinical role and don’t earn a lot. Knowing I’m able to have sick leave when unwell and have annual leave/a decent pension is the thing that keeps me going.

The legal requirement for leave in the UK is 20 days plus bank holidays (so 28 in total), apparently the NHS starts at 27 days plus 8 bank holidays (35 days total) I wouldn’t classify that as a “few days”, it’s well over a weeks difference. Many private sector businesses also restrict when holidays can and can’t be taken.

Paid overtime? 🤣🤣🤣
Can you let my boss know they owe me thousands then?

You only get paid for APPROVED overtime. So if you choose to pick up and extra shift etc. You don’t get paid for working through your unpaid lunch or finishing late because you had to complete the paperwork etc. The managers simply say you should have managed your time better (while doing the job of 3 people) and so it’s your own responsibility.

It's because the NHS...

1. Doesn't need to make a profit, unlike a private business
2. Won't go bust and out of business no matter how lax the management
3. Can take money out of the services it is supposed to provide and reassign it to staffing costs (see 1.)
4. Will always be allocated more funding, eventually

Any criticism of how its staff operate will be met with "it's not a race to the bottom!1!!"

In all my years working in the public sector I’ve never been paid overtime 😂

You are entitled to overtime, if your boss is refusing to approve it raise a grievance, doh.

@1457bloom I don’t get any overtime paid or otherwise

Also a consultant (34 days plus BHs as consultant for >7 years). DH works in advertising and gets significantly more AL than I do - 6 weeks plus BHs plus the office is closed for two weeks between Christmas and NY (5th Jan this year) so gets this off too, on top of his AL. And he doesn’t work weekends or get called throughout the night and then expected to work another 14 hour day the next day.

If you are a consultant in the private sector, I expect your pay is significantly higher than an NHS consultant’s too.

Doesn’t this apply to the private sector as well?

I think some of what is in your OP strikes me as being at the discretion of line managers. I'm in the NHS, I've got the 33 days plus bank holidays annual leave as I've done 10 year's service. But any time I need for GP appointments has to be worked back as time owed, I wasn't given compassionate leave to attend my uncle's funeral last year as was told I'd need to take it as annual leave as he wasn't my parent. By contrast when my husband (who also works in the NHS in the same trust as me) lost his grandmother last year his line manager instantly gave him a week of compassionate leave and an additional day for the funeral.

Depends very much on your contract. If you are salaried not hourly, you are paid to do the job, not paid by the hour, so no overtime.

not sure where the 8 weeks annual leave comes from but when you join the NHS you get 25 days annual leave plus bank holidays, that rises to 27 after 5 years and 30 after 10.

sick pay entitlement is good though and after 5 years you can get up to 6 months full pay... special leave/compassionate leave is just 1 week per rolling 12 months.

but pay is lower in NHS than private, no bonuses or tons of money for development and generally too many vacancies so the workload is immense.

Pension is okay but you pay for that out of wages dependant on how much you earn, somewhere between 8 and 12%

Really? I had 5 days off compassionate leave when my mum died and I worked the day after I started bleeding with my miscarriage.
If we want more than 3 weeks AL in a row we have to apply to the management team and it is usually rejected

Put simply, it's the only reason they can retain staff.
Take away the 8 weeks annual leave for 10+ years service, the sick pay, the pension and there will be a serious staffing crisis.
Op, why don't you get a job with the nhs if it appeals?

Just because your employer is shit, does that mean that all others should sink to their standard?

Also, you are massively over exaggerating and fudging the numbers to try to make out that the difference is more than it is. The NHS leave entitlement that you quoted will include 8 days bank holiday, while you haven’t included them in your ‘four weeks’.

I regularly work about 12.5 hours extra every week in the NHS. We can't get this as overtime pay because then we are told we are simply not efficient and not managing our workload and get put on performance management 😅 If you don't work in the NHS then please keep your opinions to yourselves about this as you don't have a clue!

Edited for typo

This thread is full of idiots who know nothing about working in the NHS other than what some friend told them

the multiple posters correcting the OP confirms the above
go back to reading the DM or similar nonsense

Or you put up with poor working conditions

So, a porter on about £30k pays about £6k in tax and NI that definitely goes out of her pay before she receives it. Let’s accept that you’re right and that isn’t tax, despite what it says on her payslip.

And a porter that works in the NHS hospital with again a very similar looking pay slip, but for the PFI company - is she paying tax?

A porter across the road in the Nuffield has a payslip that looks very similar. What she pays is tax presumably? Is it still tax if the Nuffield’s work is mainly on NHS elective lists?

Why?

Your “this is not a problem” is disingenuous.

The reason this is a problem is because you have introduced it into a thread about NHS remuneration as if it meant something or was in any way illuminating. It is a problem because it’s wheeled out as some kind of gotcha against the public sector, and the hard of thinking lap it up.

People who I know who have been off have been off for sickness such as onset of depression taking medication for years
cancer - came back on reduced hours and retired as expected to same amount of work as before
burnout - high numbers and should make an employer wonder why their staff are affected especially if employer is healthcare don’t you think!
they aren’t taking the proverbial

NHS AfC staff are salaried but have a standard number of working hours per week.

Any time worked in excess of that is technically overtime. In most cases it is either disregarded (does anyone remember “half an hour for the Queen”?) or recorded as lieu time, which you can take if you’re lucky.

Paying to work - clinics start late because doctors can’t get a parking space, nurses doing night shifts need safe travel. Staff have to be on site and on time

Hot dealing means not enough desks for number of staff - 3 computers between ward clerks, nurses and doctors
So you have to carry portable office with you to get patient care done when you can find a space.

(which may mean you need a car to get to work especially if you work at different sites)

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