Secretary's Corner
March 2008
I would like to take this opportunity to thank those of you that sent back comments during the consultation period on the draft Annual Leave policy. Most of the comments received were very constructive and helpful and we will be looking at each of them when we next meet with Management.
Unsurprisingly the area that caused most feedback was around the length of notice required to book leave and I would like to try and explain why we ended up where we did.
We currently still have 3 very different management structures and 3 very different ways of allocating shifts to scheduling support/relief staff in the 3 former Trust areas, so when we came to look at trying to agree a common length of notice across the EoE, it became like trying to fit a square peg into a round hole.
Therefore we took the decision that until we have a common management structure and scheduling support in place, that current length of notice arrangements should remain in force. The reason that the length of notice has always been longer in the old NSC locality is because we have always tried to consider our scheduling support staff, who are an important and integral part of our A&E teams, and have in place an arrangement that gives them a reasonable period of notice of their shifts so that they can plan ahead like everyone else.
I hope everyone would agree that this arrangement, which has been in place for many years, is there for all the right reasons so as not to discriminate unfairly against our scheduling support staff.
We have however managed to agree a reduction in length of notice for staff in the NSC locality from the previous 9 weeks to 42 days, which the management side have assured us will not have a detrimental affect on the allocation of shifts to scheduling support staff, any attempt to reduce it further though would have a negative impact on the amount of notice those staff would receive of their shifts. So by observing the proposal put forward in the draft policy, no-one would actually suffer any loss on the arrangements that they currently work to..
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