Trust argueing years of service.

[budhasbelly]

Hope someone can help me, sorry if it's long.
Out of the blue the NHS trust that I'be worked for since 1993 is saying I've only been there since 2004,

I did have 3 months leave in early 04 due to a personal issue which manager at the time assured me was being treated as sabbatical with no change in Al pension and years of service. Since then I've been having my usual entitlement for people of 10 yrs service payingu pension etc with no issues. Now, all of a sudden this is wrong and I'm spitting feathers. What can I do?
I've spoken to my old manager(we are both in different roles now) and he recalls the "sabbatical" but not sure how it was recorded back then.
Please help before I say something I might regret to someone in this hell hole.

I wonder if it's to do with the ESR system ...when ours went live the information regards employment dates were wrong and they had to input all the correct start dates manually. We're quite a small trust so not too many people and was completed quite quickly. Though they put dates in my actual "workplace" and "role" remains the same as it is now and does not reflect my different roles over the years (started in 1999!) - this is all the same trust.

The trusts now rely on the ESR system for all their info...maybe they haven't passed over the paper records properly?

can you log into your ESR account and check for yourself.

Also check your "special leave" policy that (ours does) clearly states that all employment benefits remain if out for under 6 months....ours is akin to the maternity policy.

I'm not completely up to date with all that came with agenda for change but I'm sure that continuous service was agreed as a benefit for all, it previously wasn't.

Hi

The fact that you may or may not have had a sabbatical is irrelevant as the agenda for change handbook state that time in service in Cumulative NOT necessarily continuous. In theory you could start and stop upteen times, as long as you can prove it (I had to do this last year when I got to ten years- luckily I was able to find old P60's etc) that meets the AFC criteria.

The thing is a lot of the peope in HR (and management) might noit even be clear on this. I wa told initially that my service had to be continuous and with the same trut but in fact the policy (which was written to conform to AFC t and C) stated clearly that it was cumulative not continuous.

What i did in the end was quote the trusts own policy at them and they backed down staright away!!

If you've worked there and been on the payroll for those years then HMRC should also have a record of your employment.

depressed is right. A4C is quite clear that service is cummulative and not continuous. I had 6 months out after working for the NHS for 3 years when I worked for a charity, but got to my 10 years service last year none the less.

Thanks everyone for replying, got caught up with patients and the day got away from me.
I did point out to HR they were wrong to say the leave would set me back to zero but she didn't seem to know what I was talking about. I've printed off the very clear guidelines re cumulative service which when I calmed down took me .8 secs to find on google and will look forward to presenting them to her.

Thanks again to you all, reassuring to hear it from other people also.

I would think that the assimilation to agenda for change is to blame for this mistake. It happened in 2004 for the majority of trusts. I imagine when entering your details someone will have put the wrong date in!

You need to find the person who holds your personnel file (physical file not electronic) and in there should be all the evidence you need - original job offer and prob details about your sabbatical.