cutting pregnant nurses pay!

Re: cutting pregnant nurses pay!

Tracy Windler RVN — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 11:59:52 GMT

Very true- I'm glad I have the sense and guts to not allow someone to walk all over me anymore!

Re: cutting pregnant nurses pay!

Nick Shackleton — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 11:53:24 GMT

[quote user="Tracy Windler RVN"]

[quote user="Nick BATFINK Shackleton Dip AVN(surg)VN"]

Surly if you are working a weekend you should get time off in lieu.......

[/quote]

hahahaha! You'd think?! I used to work 8.30am Saturday, until 8.30am Monday-granted, it wasn't constant work, but answering phones and seeing to inpatients on your own, means you are always on duty, then you get the rest of Monday off!! What a joke! 48 hrs working, no extra pay unless you had a call-out that required your assistance, but once it was admitted, that is your on-duty responsibility, so no extra pay. Then I get the equivilant of 8 hrs off. GREAT!

And I did that for 2 years! Some of them are still doing it! So glad I work somewhere that values its staff now. There are good employers out there, guys, you don't have to stay somewhere that treats you like a slave!

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Tracey I have done the same in the past! I just think that in this day and age nursing staff should be taken care of!

Re: cutting pregnant nurses pay!

Tracy Windler RVN — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 11:49:00 GMT

[quote user="Nick BATFINK Shackleton Dip AVN(surg)VN"]

Surly if you are working a weekend you should get time off in lieu.......

[/quote]

Re: cutting pregnant nurses pay!

Nick Shackleton — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 11:18:47 GMT

Where I used to work our OOH was included in our salary but we got time off in lieu for working a weekend. ie 4 days off per weekend worked. Therefore surly if you don't work a weekend you don't get the time off. This what happened to the nurses I used to work with when they fell pregnant. They just worked 5 days per week without any days off. They also stopped working the late finishes ie they worked 8-4, 8-5 or 10-6.

Surly if you are working a weekend you should get time off in lieu.......

Re: cutting pregnant nurses pay!

Tracy Windler RVN — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 10:52:47 GMT

I'm not sure on the legalities, but, surely, if you are taken off the ooh rota, then you lose the additional pay for that. Its not fair on the others, if one person gets the pay, but doesn't do the work. I do agree that this should be done in consutation with the person involved, especially as it effects her pay. There are ways around lone working issues. We used to carry an alarm, which sounds if you fall or press a button, notifying others.

Believe me, if you ose a baby, you blame yourself anyway, so that part is irrelevant!

The fact that your ooh work is included in your salary and this individual is forced to come off the ooh rota, is the issue here, I think. Is that stated specifically in your contracts? If so, do you know what proportion of that IS ooh? Or are they just making up a random amount?!

Re: cutting pregnant nurses pay!

MrsP — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 09:48:03 GMT

I had risk assessments eventually (started at 4 months when I told boss straight away at 3 weeks pregnant). Risk assessments were pretty much left to me to decide what I did and didn't feel able to do. Having not been pregnant before, I did not fully understand the risks of anaesthesia with regards pregnancy and feel this should be taken into account much more. As has been said - you are aware of the risks of radiography and therefore are not in the same room, but anaesthetic gases are not so finite to distinguish! I really wish I had had more guideance with this matter from my practice. Rant over.

When I was eventually taken off nights/weekends (at around 7 months) my pay decreased as these are paid as overtime where I work. I agree with what everyone has said about getting finite clarification, but to me, taking a pay cut is WRONG.

I do, however, feel that the employer taking more responsibility with regards what a member of staff should/shouldn't be doing when pregnant is a good thing. I kept going with anaesthetics/lates/wknds far longer than I probably should because I didn't want to put upon my colleagues and had noone of authority telling me otherwise. I understand that everyone's situation is different, but every practice does things COMPLETELY differently. Does anyone know of any definite guidelines/rules that exist or is it really up to individual practices to make it up as they go along?

Sorry this post is so long. (and slightly off topic... sorry.)

Re: cutting pregnant nurses pay!

loobylou — Sun, 19 Dec 2010 21:00:19 GMT

[quote user="mrs mac"]

It might be worth giving the BVNA legal helpline a call too.

[/quote]

I agree, something doesn't sound right about that.
When I found out I was pregnant I was taken off the ooh and weekend rota pretty much straight away after it was deemed unsafe during my risk assessment. I continued on the nursing rota as normal except no theatre work and as time went on I spent alot more time doing admin work.
I am salaried but a portion of that is calculated for us covering the ooh and weekends, I didn't have my wages or hours reduced as a result of my pregnancy and would have been v unhappy if it had even been mentioned.

Re: cutting pregnant nurses pay!

Mac Feather — Sun, 19 Dec 2010 20:36:51 GMT

It might be worth giving the BVNA legal helpline a call too.

Re: cutting pregnant nurses pay!

Steph Phillips — Sun, 19 Dec 2010 19:22:57 GMT

- they can't just lower yor wage without speaking to her first and drawing up another contract, surely?? [quote user="Gillian Mostyn"]they just have to find you alternative hours/duties.[/quote] - yup.. I was just going to suggest that

Re: cutting pregnant nurses pay!

Gillian Mostyn — Sun, 19 Dec 2010 16:51:46 GMT

I'm pretty sure they can't cut your normal salary due to pregnancy - they just have to find you alternative hours/duties.

Re: cutting pregnant nurses pay!

Steph Worsley — Sun, 19 Dec 2010 16:27:05 GMT

Ok I was assuiming that the OOh was outside normal contracted hours. However have they actually said that they are reducing her wage? have they said she needs to do extra daytime shifts to compensate?

for example if you normally do a week of "lates" and are on call for that week say working 2-10 then on call are they just putting her on a different shift for that week? as then they are doing everything they can to make things work for her

Re: cutting pregnant nurses pay!

caz vernon — Sun, 19 Dec 2010 16:15:11 GMT

This is her normal wage. our ooh is included in our salary

Re: cutting pregnant nurses pay!

Gillian Mostyn — Sun, 19 Dec 2010 16:09:31 GMT

An employer does have to carry out a risk assessment and remove any preceived risks. However, it may depend on her contract (what her 'standard duties are' but I was under the impression that if she cannot carry out her normal duties safely then she can be prevented from doing them, but alternative duties found, or she has to be suspended on full pay. Your 'normal' wage should not be reduced. Is the OOH classed as overtime, extra to normal contracted hours?

Re: cutting pregnant nurses pay!

Anonymous — Sun, 19 Dec 2010 15:10:04 GMT

[quote user="Steph Worsley RVN MBVNA"]

[quote user="StephB"]

[quote user="caz1001"]

any advice would be appreciated. My collegue is pregnant and our employers are taking her off the out of hours oncall rota.. against her will... shes happy to stay on the rota, they are subsequently reducing her pay cos of this, surely this is ILLEGAL! anyone else got experience with this sort of thing to help her out?? xxxx

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How is she to be able to continue to do out of hours safely pregnant? Or am I missing something? I think by law she is not allowed to work certain hours or be around gas in ops and most out of hours emergencies would require these things no?

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I dont think that it is against the law it is just advisary not to be around anaesthetics or radiography, however we have had a number of pregnant staff recently and as long as the animal is tubed correctly then it is fine, as for radiography then they shouldnt be in the room anyway. I know one person who was still operating late on into her pregnancy and has had no problems because of it, also most of our staff are around anaesthetics at some point during the day!

Back to the OP, if the practice has performed a risk assessment and found that OOH working would be detrimental to both/either mum and baby then they can take her off the rota, how would she feel if she was dealing with a big dog on her own OOH and it knocked her over and she lost the baby?

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ah ok i just got the impression from the terminology chosen and used by Ian that it was not allowed.

Re: cutting pregnant nurses pay!

Steph Worsley — Sun, 19 Dec 2010 15:08:04 GMT

[quote user="StephB"]

[quote user="caz1001"]

[/quote]

Re: cutting pregnant nurses pay!

Anonymous — Sun, 19 Dec 2010 14:58:25 GMT

Taken from another useful post...

Hi Emma

You are quite right about anaesthesia being bad for pregnancy. If an employee becomes pregnant at work an employer is legally obliged to perform a "New and expectant mothers" risk assessment with them. This takes the form of a monthly/weekly meeting at which you and your employer go through the risk form and assess any changes that may have occurred.

One thing to note is that an employer MUST perform a risk assessment immediately upon being advised that an employee is pregnant. There are a number of cases whereby employers have been fined for failure to carry out the initial first risk assessment for 2 or 3 weeks. Also a practice must already have in place a general "New and expectant mothers" risk assessment even if no one is pregnant.

Once an employee announces they are pregnant there are two areas of practice they are no longer allowed near under ANY circumstances - Radiography and Anaesthesia.

Also as the pregnancy progresses there will possibly come a point at which certain jobs become impossible or dangerous to perform. These jobs will have to be given to someone else.

The reality is that towards the end of the pregnancy an expectant mother usually ends up becoming a receptionist as its one of the few "safe" desk job roles within the practice. This however does not mean the risk assessments stop, because if an expectant mother develops medical issues such as high blood pressure etc then they may find that they are asked to go on maternity leave for their own safety. Sometimes this can be prior to the date that an expectant mother has requested for her maternity leave, unfortunately the employee will have to abide by a practices decision if it is based on a risk assessment that suggests a sufficiently increased risk factor for the employee if they are at work at all.

Hope this helps you and if you have any questions let me know.

thanks

Ian Thompson

Practice Manager

Ashfield Veterinary Group

www.ashfieldveterinarygroup.co.uk

Re: cutting pregnant nurses pay!

Anonymous — Sun, 19 Dec 2010 14:52:20 GMT

[quote user="caz1001"]

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