NHS squeezing every minute from me

[Raindropsandroses123]

So I am trying to work out my flexible working return to work from maternity leave.

I initially put in a request for 23 hours over 3. 5 days (1 long day, 2 short days).

My manager has come back to me to say I should round it off (lower to 22.5 of hours) so the WTE is rounded off to 0.6 WTE. Fine.

However he is now saying that I also need to incorporate time for unpaid breaks and work more (over 6 hours) on my shorter days (as per employment law which I am aware
of). However when you work our the difference it’s quite a bit of pay difference over the year. When you look at even hours 7.5 every day then 30min breaks are deducted.

My frustration are that my options are to a) work 24 hours with breaks deducted.
or b) reduce to 22.5 hours with no breaks deducted (but if I change to over 3 days in future they would be so I’d be paid even less).

my question is has anyone had a manager do this in the public sector with flexible working? How did you get around it? Im so tired at the moment, I’m not sure if I am over thinking this. What’s best option?

Slightly confused but it may be a typo. Are you wanting to work 3 days or 3.5 days?

You can work up to 6 hours without a break so 2 x 6 =12 hours with no break plus a long day of 11 hours + 30 minute break = 11.5 hours including a break = 23 hours net.

The WTE is for your managers convenience as it’s easier to fill 0.4

Work breaks are normally unpaid ie if you are at work for 8 hours you will need to take a half hour break so would be paid for 7.5 hours

Breaks in the NHS have always been unpaid.

If you want to do one long day off 11.5 hours paid, that would usually mean 12 hours between the start and end of shift times, so 8am-8pm for example.

If you want to do another 11 hours on top of that over two days to make it up to 22.5 hours paid over you could do 6 hours one day and 5 the next, neither of which would legally require a break (its only over 6 hours that does)

Depending on your Job role though that might not be practical - if you work on a ward you usually need to fit the shift times for example.

There’s a legal requirement that when you work 6 hours you have to have an unpaid break - I did allow one of my team to add the unpaid break to the end of the day so she’d be able to finish 30 minutes early and go home as it was her “break” but that is not really how it should work. Your manager is just following standard employment law.

And do payroll adjust for this?
if they see someone has worked 22.5 hours do they just take the break times off the salary if they don’t know the hours per day?

You can work 6 hours without a break. What you can’t do is work more than 6 hours without taking a break.

You need to talk to HR/payroll how the systems capture this. I know HR/payroll systems can do this it’s whether your organisation’s have been configured to do this.

If you are contracted for 22.5 hours you will be paid 22.5 hours by payroll.

If this was divided into a standard 3 day week of 7.5 paid hours per day however, you would likely be 'in' work 8 hours - so your working day would be 9- 5 for example or 8:30 to 4:30, with a 30 minute unpaid break in the middle. Does that make sense? Payroll would realise this and no adjustment needed.

If you are being paid 22.5 hours a week split evenly over 3 days, then you would be on site for 24 hours, with 1.5 hours of that being your unpaid breaks.

Your manager is correct here.

The breaks aren't deducted from salary though, they're added to your shift time. So if your shift is 7.5hrs you would be one site for 8hrs (7.5 + 30min break) and paid for 7.5hrs.

If you work 24hrs you will be working and paid for 8hrs shifts + 30mins break, so on site for 8.5hrs.

If you want to work 6hr shifts x 3 days, you're asking for an 18hr contract and will be paid for 18hrs with no entitlement to breaks.

I worked 0.6 in NHS and that was the hours payroll paid me for. So you will get paid for the actual hours stated on your contract eg 22.5

The breaks are organised at dept level but as PPs have said you must have a break if your shift is over 6 hours. So if you work 8-2 you can work straight through with no break but if you work 8 -4 then you will actually be at work 8-4.30 as you’ll have a half hour unpaid break.

As long as he is happy to pay you 0.6 and agrees to 6 hours x 2 and 1 x 11 hour shift with a 30 minute break, that is your 22.5 and how it gets out on the roster is up to him or administrator. The important things is that you are on a 22.5 hour contract as that is what you will then get paid every month

You’ll get a variation on your contract to 22.5 hours and that’s how much you get paid for. Payroll won’t be interested in or look at how this is configured, they will just pay you.
The shift times, breaks, how it adds up and whether you are under or over hours will
be done on the departmental software. We use allocate.

If you work for 22.5 hours you should be paid for 22.5 hours. But your shift start and end times will add up to longer than 22.5 hours, if any single shift is longer than 6 hours. Does that make sense?

What used to happen, when you were FT? There should be absolutely no difference.

All breaks are unpaid in the NHS. In certain jobs you might get a paid 10 minute water/toilet break during the shift e.g. if you couldn’t just down tools and go to the toilet whenever you needed to.

As everyone above says you will be paid for the contracted hours, breaks are just part of you shift which is organized in each unit.

The far bigger question is will you actually get said breaks??? If you are working through them as so many are they still do not get paid!

Your manager knows what they are saying and you don’t understand how pay and hours work.

Of course I do, I have worked part time and full time before, this problem never effected me before.

This issue is due to a not fit for purpose rostering system which doesn’t understand flexible working. I have since found out that HR are aware of it and are trying to make adjustments manually. So it was not just me coming across this issue.

Have you bothered to read anyone else’s post? It’s been clearly explained how it works and you don’t seem to understand it?

Nah, you are missing the understanding of some detail. Nevermind.
The issue is being corrected today so obviously the issue I was talking about was correct.