Bank holiday work

[JemmaH94]

I work Wednesday - Friday in the NHS. I've been told to work the next bank holiday Monday. I was expecting to only need to work any bank/national holidays that fall on my working days. However I've been told as it's in my contract to work bank holidays then I'm expected to sometimes need to work them. Is this correct?

Different trusts will have different policies on this - you will need to look at the wording of your contract. Have you got a copy?

I agree this will be contractual.

Will you be paid extra or work one less day?

Depends if your contract specifies days or is .6. Presumably you would only work 2 other days that week.

I haven't got a hard copy so will have to search a bit for it. What kind of wording would imply I need to work days I don't usually work? I imagine it'll be generic and simply say 'bank holidays'

Yes it would be in place of a day in the same week.

I'll have to dig out the contract. I think it's general and simply states bank holidays.

@JemmaH94 your contract may also refer to policies so you need to read those as well.

Were you specifically hired and contracted to work those days? Or is it an agreement that was negotiated between you and your manager?

If you can manage it I would show willing and do it - in the interests of teamwork. But if you genuinely can't due to childcare etc then you will need to tell the manager that you can't do it.

I would imagine that lots of staff have requested the long weekend off. I know in my team, people like yourself generally are willing to help out during tricky periods like Easter to be fair towards the FT staff who also deserve the occasional BH off. But I know of one team member who definitely couldn't due to lack of support with DC so no one minds that she can't.

Thanks for your reply. I'm willing to work them, but was expecting to need to work Good Friday/Christmas/new year etc. I'm the only one in the team with children, and the only one who works part time. But I'm given the same number of bank holidays to work. We share weekend work equally, which I'm happy to do. I just wasn't expecting to work the bank holiday Mondays as it's not a normal day that I work. Bank holiday annual leave entitlement is pro rata, so it feels fair that the bank holidays I actually work are pro rata, but it's not the case.