Agenda For Change : 3 days of pro rata public holiday paid at plain rate.

[marleythecat]

Hello,

I work at a busy hospital as a Domestic at the weekend, although employed by an outsourced company we have the same terms and conditions as the band 2 NHS staff because we are on an Agenda For Change contract. Now when it comes to annual leave our allowance is 11 days paid at the enhanced rate which is flat rate multiplied by 41% on a Saturday and 83% on a Sunday. We also get three days of pro rata public holiday called DOIL (day off in lieu) these are paid at flat/plain rate rather than enhanced rate, and it is this which I think is incorrect.

Agenda For Change 13.7 says that public holiday allowance should be 'Added' to annual leave entitlement, and 13.9 says pay is calculated on the basis of what the individual would have been paid had he / she been at work.

In terms of money it works out at about £210 a year less by being paid at flat rate for those three pro rata public holidays rather than enhanced rate. Not a huge amount, but there are around 100 weekend staff, so it saves the employer quite a bit by not interpreting and applying the wording of Agenda For Charge correctly. When I raised this I was told to contact Agenda For Change and they rather unhelpfully told me to speak to my manager! Any thoughts on this issue will be gratefully received.

MTC

Do you usually work public holidays? I’m not familiar with day off in lieu, we don’t have that.

As weekend only workers we don't work public holidays (apart from Christmas Day and Boxing Day every seven years when they fall on a Saturday or Sunday) because a full time worker gets 8 days bank holidays we get 3 days pro rata, but not paid at an unsocial hours rate of pay which is I believe wrong.

Are you meaning the AfC absence payments? They aren’t payable for bank holidays.

No, it's simply a pro rata calculation, full time is 27 days plus 8 public holidays, we work 2/5ths of a normal working week so we get 11 days paid at enhanced rate ( because we work unsocial hours) and 3 days paid at flat rate. It's just that in Agenda For Change wording 13.7 it says public holidays should be added to annual leave, in our workplace public holidays are looked at separately by those who decide these things and pay us incorrectly as a result (I think anyway) I will challenge the next day off in lieu on my payslip and see what happens.