37-hour week – Briefing 1

Reduction in working week – Agenda For Change staff

As previously advised the reduced working week (RWW) for Agenda for Change (AfC) staff will reduce to 37 hours for full-time staff and pro-rata for part-time staff from 1 April 2024.  Full details can be found via NHS Circular PCS(AFC)2024/2, which also contains Frequently Asked Questions: Reduction in the working week for Agenda for Change staff in NHS Scotland

A local programme board is currently being established that will oversee the full implementation of the reduced working week to ensure compliance with the national agreement.  A detailed transition plan setting out how and when service areas will move to the new 37 working week will be developed with service areas and our Trade Union Organisations and will be phased in over a period of time ensuring both patient safety and staff wellbeing.

In accordance with the national agreement, where the reduction in working week can be implemented from 1 April 2024 without any impact on patient safety or staff wellbeing, then this should be implemented, following agreement with the respective Executive Director or Chief Officer. 

Where it is not possible to immediately implement the reduced working week staff will continue to work their normal contracted hours from 1 April 2024 and be recompensed appropriately.

To support the reduction in the working hours, ePayroll, SSTS and eESS will all be updated from 1 April 2024 with the new full time hours and pro-rata part-time hours.  To enable this, the systems will be down from Thursday 28 March to Tuesday 2 April 2024 inclusive.  During this period, you will not be able to access the systems or make any changes.  Any payroll changes processed in eESS which have an effective date after 1 April 2024 will be processed after the system comes back online.

In SSTS, all AfC contracted hours will be updated and shown on SSTS rosters as follows:

• Full time/conditioned hours will be changed from 37.5 to 37 per week

• Contracted hours for full-time staff will be changed from 37.5 to 37 per week

• Contracted hours for part-time staff will be reduced on a pro rata basis

Part-Time Workers

The new hours for part time staff will be reduced pro-rata and rounded up to ensure no reduction in pay. For part-time staff whose contracted hours have been reduced, there is no automatic right to revert to previous contracted hours.  Further guidance on this shall be issued to managers in due course.  A quick reference table has been produced which will demonstrate the change for part-time workers.  Click here to view.

SSTS – Action Required by SSTS Administrators

All SSTS rosters will need to be amended to reflect updated working patterns from 1 April 2024 whether or not you have implemented the reduced working week to ensure staff are paid accurately.

Where a service cannot implement the reduction in the working week immediately from 1 April 2024 and staff are required to continue to work their existing contracted hours during the local transition period, they will be recompensed by way of a temporary RWW Transitional Allowance; part time staff will receive plain time up to 37 hours and full-time staff will receive time and a half for anything above 37.

A new excess/overtime reason will be added to SSTS – “Addtl Hours – Reduced Working Week” – which must be used to record the minutes of RWW Transitional Allowance to be paid where it is not possible for a staff member to receive their 30 minute reduction (pro rata number of minutes for part time staff.) For full time staff an additional 30 minutes will need to be added. For part time staff the pro rata minutes need to be added. To ensure the correct payment is made, these additional minutes should be added to any Monday to Friday shift between 9am and 5pm, even if the member of staff only works nights or weekends and not on a day that is designated as a public holiday. These additional minutes should also be paid during all periods of leave including sickness absence and annual leave.

Important – as this is equivalent to an overtime/excess hours payment, all transactions will need to be authorised by the relevant manager, in time, according to the normal SSTS cut off dates. Like all overtime/excess and unsocial hours payments, this payment will be made in arrears.

eRostering

Separate communications will be issued to areas that are live to ensure appropriate actions are taken.

Annual Leave

Full-time annual leave entitlement from 1 April 2024 shall be based on 37 hours per week, part-time staff on a pro-rata basis.  The Annual leave calculator | NHS Workforce Policies will be amended to reflect this.

Managers will require to calculate annual leave entitlement based on the revised contracted hours.

Summary of actions:

• Where possible implement the reduction in the working week from 1 April 2024
• You do not need to manually change contracted hours for staff eESS this will happen automatically.
• Amend SSTS rosters to reflect revised working patterns
• Where it is not possible to implement the reduction in the working week, process the additional payment for staff
• Calculate 2024/2025 annual leave based on revised contracted hours

For any queries in relation to eESS or ERostering please raise a query via ServiceNow:  – https://nhsnss.service-now.com/ .

For Payroll queries: epayroll.lanarkshire@lanarkshire.scot.nhs.uk

Further communications will follow after 1 April 2024.