We are involved in discussions around late starts following late finishes. However, as a union, we are more invested in meetings discussing how to minimise late finishes.
The reasons for this are;
- Trust our downtime is high, and this needs to be reduced.
- Our concern is if late starts are pushed through, that there may be repercussions and other consequences to ensure downtime is reduced (which is within the Trust power).
At present we enjoy toil and overtime, rounded up to the nearest 15 minutes. Many of our shifts are 12 hours (as staff have stated they prefer), and not predominantly 8 or 10 hours like some other trusts. The Trust have agreed that this allows us to potentially have 2x 30 minute breaks on those 12 hour shifts. (We are also discussing meal break windows for staff on 10 hour shifts). On 24 hour rotas, we can work with colleagues who often come in early to cover the category 1 territory for crews. This is possible at present, as we don’t have clocking in and out systems.
The jobs we do can never guarantee us finishing in time, so our main focus is meetings is to discuss ways of minimising late finishes so staff get home on time more frequently
The operational management team are looking into the figures around late starts at present and will come back with the data once they have collated everything.
As a union, we want to ensure staff are treated fairly so as well as looking at the here and now, we will always look at the bigger picture and consider what changes mean in the long term.
We will continue to update you as we have more information.
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