Let’s make bank work better

How many people know that workers on zero-hours contracts don’t just deliver their takeaways, but their healthcare too? Over 150,000 NHS colleagues in England alone do their jobs solely through NHS Banks. Sometimes these Banks are run by NHS Trusts, but sometimes they are run by NHS Professionals – a limited company owned by the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care.

What these Banks all have in common is an employment mechanism that uses zero-hours contracts to provide work. In wider society we call this the “gig economy”. Zero-hours contracts are rife in sectors like hospitality, food delivery apps and taxi work. These contracts are often hailed as offering flexibility to both parties, but this normally benefits the employer far more than the worker.

“They don’t want a permanent contract”

We often hear from employers that bank-only workers do not want to accept substantive employment when it is offered. But how many bank workers would feel differently if they were offered a contract that could truly accommodate flexible options that fit in with their lives?

Many bank-only NHS workers only ‘choose’ to work on the bank because they have been unable to access the flexible working or the fixed shift certainty they require in substantive employment.

Bank working has increasingly been used to replace substantive posts that would give access to full NHS terms and conditions – meaning these workers miss out on things like incremental pay progression, access to paid training and development and using ‘normal’ hours worked to calculate their pay during periods of leave. The NHS should focus on bringing these workers back into substantive employment and improving the flexibility (or predictability) that they require to manage their work and home life.

And those who genuinely choose the zero hours contract model? UNISON firmly believes they should be employed on terms and conditions that are fair and equitable, whether they work for trust-run Banks or NHS Professionals. Those terms should be reflective of People Promise values and Equality, Diversity and Inclusion objectives. Rates and terms must mirror those of substantive staff, with any variation negotiated locally with the recognised trade unions.

Putting the NHS on the front foot

Change is coming down the road and the NHS needs to be ready. The government’s new Employment Rights Bill aims to end one-sided flexibility, ban exploitative zero hours contracts and give workers the ability to move to guaranteed hours they regularly work. This is a massive step in the right direction – but NHS organisations, and NHS Professionals, need to wake up to these changes and act now.

UNISON’s ‘Better NHS Bank Charter’ gives employers clear actions to start improving the rights of NHS staff who work on the bank. The first step is to listen to what NHS bank workers are crying out for and talk about flex.

This is an adapted version of a blog published on UNISON’s website – you can read the full article here.