when a break is not a break
WORKERS, APR 2005 ISSUE
A spin-off from the Agenda for Change agreement within the ambulance service has led to an interesting debate: When is a break not a break? Currently, ambulance workers have a paid meal break within their shift and are available to respond to an emergency call should one come in throughout that meal break. If they are called out from their break to respond to an emergency call there is a labyrinth of regulations regarding payments which also include "spoilt food allowance" and "no break allowance".
Agenda for Change promises to make it simpler and clearer. Under this agreement ambulance workers will have unpaid meal breaks when they can't be called out and will have to work an extra half hour on top!
The management side at first hailed this as "modernisation" and a "huge step forward" until it suddenly dawned upon them that the very people they are there to serve, patients and the public, would suffer. To ambulance workers in UNISON it was a patient care issue, but the Department of Health saw only a balance sheet.
Negotiations are now under way to agree a system that would enable the employer to pay the meal break, have ambulance workers available to respond to emergency calls throughout their shift and develop an arrangement to have payments if crews have "spoilt food" or "no break". Next — reinventing the wheel!