Hospital pay move ‘could ruin Xmas’, claim staff
ROYAL Derby Hospital has come under fire from workers who fear a change in the way they will be paid “could ruin Christmas”.
Flexible clerical workers, who currently get paid weekly, have said they are worried new monthly payments brought in by hospital bosses could leave them unable to pay bills over the festive period.
Under the scheme, weekly paydays for the 200 staff members affected will cease from December 21, so flexible clerical staff working from December 17 until December 31 will not get paid until January 25.
They say this means they will have two weeks worth of pay to last them a month.
The hospital trust says it is offering staff an advance on their pay to support them during the changeover, if they wish to take it.
A letter to the staff concerned, which has been seen by the Derby Telegraph, reads: “As you are aware, the flexible staffing operations from Derby Teaching Hospitals were transferred to the newlyformed Derby Health Staffing Ltd (DHSL) in July of this year.
“Within the original business case, it was agreed to regularly review the effectiveness of this organisational change to determine if proposed outcomes are being met.
“We have also been conscious to listen to feedback from workers and our managers.
“A decision has been taken to reintroduce an internal trust bank provision for clerical workers at University Hospitals of Derby and Burton NHS Foundation Trust (UHDB), with effect from December 17, 2018.
“This means that all current assignments for clerical workers will cease to be supplied through Derby Health Staffing Ltd (DHSL) on December 16, with a final weekly payday of December 21”.
All flexible staff were moved to weekly payments in July this year, but now clerical flexible staff have been moved back to monthly pay from December.
One clerical worker, who did not wish to be named, said: “There are a lot of staff who don’t know what they are going to do. Many have rent, mortgages and children. Now this has been dropped on us, they will have to take a step back and see what they can afford.
“It just feels like this has been done to save money at this time of the year. It has come before Christmas. Why didn’t they do this before now?
“I don’t want to take the early pay because I have some savings that I can use, but not all staff have that and they are the ones who are going to suffer”. Roger Smith, director of operational HR and workforce integration at University Hospitals of Derby and Burton, said: “We have remodelled our bank services and made changes to the way clerical flexible workers are paid.
“We have an active bank of around 2,000 staff, of those 200 are clerical workers who have been moved to monthly pay in line with substantive employees.
“We recognise this may cause financial challenges and are offering advance payments to support those staff as they re-adjust to the new payment schedule.”
There are a lot of staff who don’t know what they are going to do. Clerical worker