Locum shifts during qualifying period.

[Fedupofplaystation]

I work quite a few locum shifts in addition to my contracted hours.

I'm employed by the NHS. The locums are for a different company that have a base in our hospital and deal with all locum shifts for our hospital.

Pay for locum shifts is variable. The locum pay shows up on my normal pay slip underneath my basic like this:

Basic Pay: £xxx
Locum Company Pay: £ xxx

These are then summed together and tax, NI, pension contributions come off the total.

My question is, if I work locum shifts during my qualifying period, is my SMP (The 90% and 50% bit) calculated using just my basic pay, or is my locum pay included?

Didn't want to read and run, can you contact payroll about it? They'll know as they are the ones that deal with smp. Hope this helps

Unfortunately, HR were not particularly helpful.

Sorry to hear that Fed up. I can't think of anything else, , is there anyone you work with who would know?

I'm afraid not. No one seems to know anything about this. None of my current female colleagues have children. (Junior doctors).

I'm not sure this is relevant. We need Flowery to advise and I am sure she will correct me.

SMP is 90% of average earnings during the qualifying period for 6 weeks.

Your primary employer is the NHS. They will pay you this (based on what you earn directly from them - excluding your locum work. I don't think they have to pay you what you ear for somebody else). You imply you get an enhanced package, which I assume is topped up to 100% of you NHS pay.

Any occupational enhancement beyond the six weeks will be based solely on your NHS salary, I think. They don't appear to be employing you directly for the extra shifts.

Are you self-employed or employed by the locum agency? If employed (which I doubt - my DH is a GP and has always been self-employed when doing locums - probably depends how regularly, how much, whether they substitute other doctors for shifts etc) then I think you would get a separate maternity leave from them.

But I could be very wrong!

It's calculated just on your basic pay and your enhanced banding. Locum rate is not included, as it is treated separately.