National Health Service (NHS) employee £500 bonus payment details: FOI release

Information requested

1. The First Minister announced £500 bonus for NHS Scotland employees on 30/11/20. She mentioned that anyone that works for the NHS on that day would get this bonus. Then later on it was announced that there is a condition to this bonus, which is to have been working for NHS Scotland for at least a month. What was announced categorically mentioned no condition to the bonus besides working for NHS Scotland. Please clarify who made this condition after the announcement and why you think people who worked for the NHS for 4 weeks are eligible but those that worked 3 weeks 6 days or less are not. 

2. NHS Scotland contact tracers across the country do the same job - contact tracing. However, some contact tracers are on band 3, others are on band 5 salaries. Please explain why there is not an equal pay for all contact tracers across the county. 

Response

The criteria for qualification for the £500 payment was negotiated and agreed through the Scottish Terms and Conditions Committee (STAC) which is part of NHS Scotland’s partnership structure and exists to oversee terms and conditions in NHS Scotland. You can find information on Scottish partnership structures here. And you can find information on the membership of STAC here.

The qualifying criteria agreed by STAC was published as PCS(COV)2020/1, available here.

With regard to the banding of Contact Tracers, I would refer you to my previous reply. “With regard to the banding of a given job, this is taken forward through the NHS Job Evaluation process detailed in the Job Evaluation Handbook which can be accessed here – https://www.msg.scot.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/JE_Handbook_amended-April-2020.pdf. Job Evaluation is undertaken in partnership at Board level. Jobs are banded on the content of the agreed job description rather than the job title so it is possible for staff with similar job titles in different Board to be banded differently since the nature of their jobs are different. However, if you believe you have not been banded correctly you may wish to discuss this with your union or staff representative group with a view to challenging the banding outcome through the agreed procedures for addressing such disputes.”

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