Fair pay: nurses win thousands of pounds after job evaluation
Posted 31 July 2024 - 15:30
After five-year battle to get their roles moved up from band 5 to 6, job evaluation process secures back pay award for 13 nurses at a Northern Ireland NHS trust
A group of band 5 intensive care nurses has been awarded tens of thousands of pounds from an NHS trust after successfully securing ‘justice’ in a job evaluation.
The 13 nurses employed at the Southern Health and Social Care Trust in Northern Ireland secured the back pay win after a five-year battle to get their roles moved from a band 5 to a band 6.
Back pay claim taken to a job evaluation panel
With the support of the RCN, one nurse was awarded £36,000, with some members also receiving pay dating back to 2013.
The claim, which was taken to a job evaluation panel, included nurses who had worked as managers, but returned to employment to help colleagues on the front line during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Experienced intensive care unit (ICU) nurse and retired ward manager Helen McGarry returned to work as a staff nurse on a 16-hour a week contract in 2016.
‘I went back on a temporary band 5 contract, but once in the role, it was clear I was doing the work of a band 6,’ she said.
‘I’m used to being autonomous and making decisions, checking endotracheal tubes and ventilators and asking the right questions about a person’s care. It’s natural for me to take the lead and be confident, but I knew I wasn’t being paid for the work I was doing.’
Band 5 nurse given temporary uplift to band 6 during COVID-19 felt undervalued after pandemic
But when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, the eight-bed ward was expanded to accommodate an extra 16 patients and Ms McGarry found herself tasked with training and supporting staff drafted in from outside the ICU.
‘I was given a temporary uplift to a band 6, but after two years of working during one of the toughest times of my career, I went back to band 5. I was back to £16 an hour and felt very undervalued.’
Ms McGarry contacted the RCN and job evaluation officer David McKerr advised her that there was already a group of nurses going through the job evaluation process at the trust. She was advised to join them and to keep a daily journal recording her duties that went beyond the scope of a band 5.
Working in partnership with other unions for around 60 staff working at the trust, Mr McKerr built a case for Ms McGarry and her RCN colleagues.
Mr McKerr said that many more members could be eligible for an uplift and their case was the ‘tip of the iceberg.’
Lack of knowledge around job evaluation for nursing staff, says union
He said: ‘I’m glad we got justice, especially for the experienced retired nurses who’d returned to work. I pushed to make sure they weren’t treated differently.
‘Job evaluation is a legitimate, evidence-based process. Gathering appropriate evidence for the review panel can be a lengthy process, so I commend them all for persevering.
‘There is a lack of knowledge around job evaluation and an idea that it’s more complicated than it is, but nursing staff need to make sure they are being valued for the work they do. This is just the tip of the iceberg.’
A Southern Health and Social Care Trust spokesperson said that while it will always endeavour to participate in the job evaluation process, along with staff and their trade union representatives where appropriate, it cannot comment on individual staff settlement cases.
In other news