Do you work ‘on the bank’ in the NHS? UNISON wants to make work better for you.
Across the NHS, hundreds of thousands of NHS staff are employed on zero hours bank contracts, either through their trust’s staff bank or via NHS Professionals. These contracts offer flexibility of working at the expense of job security, with terms and conditions that are worse than other permanent (substantive) NHS staff they work alongside.
Bank workers often feel less valued than their substantive colleagues. If they become unwell or their circumstances change, they could lose their income and face financial hardship.
They are often overseas workers who are not offered full contracts, carers who have been refused flexible working, single parents that rely on weekly pay and retirees who could not get the flexibility they needed to take flexible retirement.
According to workforce data, bank only workers are disproportionately more likely to be Black. This means the NHS has a two-tier workforce, with Black bank staff working under less favourable conditions than their white colleagues. The same is experienced by overseas staff working on bank contracts instead of being offered permanent contracts.
UNISON believes it doesn’t have to be this way.
How can we make bank work better?
UNISON believes that the first step is to offer permanent flexible contracts to those who want them. For those who have no option but to work on the bank, the NHS should improve pay, terms and conditions to help bank staff feel valued and be treated the same as their substantive colleagues.
Filling shifts covered through an in-house NHS Bank is a better alternative than paying expensive fees to private agencies – but it needs to be done the right way.
UNISON wants to negotiate a national bank framework to make bank working better. In the meantime, local employer partnerships can make a difference using the UNISON Better NHS Bank Charter.
Will the government do something about unfair contracts?
The UK Government’s Next Steps to Make Work Pay sets out how it plans to end one-sided flexibility, ban exploitative zero hours contracts and give workers the ability to move to guaranteed hours they regularly work.
The Employment Rights Bill was published on 10 October 2024 and UNISON will be involved at every stage to bring this law to its full potential. In the meantime, UNISON wants to work in partnership with NHS employers to make bank work better. Employers can be taking steps now to prepare for bigger changes to come.
What do we want employers to do?
UNISON encourages all NHS employers to adopt the principles in our Better NHS Bank Charter. This shows support and values NHS bank staff. It also signals a commitment to ending exploitative zero hours contracts in the NHS.
UNISON treats all members who work in the NHS as employees for the purposes of their statutory rights and commits to campaign and support groups of bank workers who want help to organise and gain better rights.
UNISON’s Better NHS Bank Charter
UNISON’s Better NHS Bank Charter asks employers to adopt the following principles:
- Bridge the flexibility gap and use the statutory ‘day one’ right to request flexible working. This means having a conversation with staff to find the best working arrangements and not to default to bank as an alternative to flexible working within substantive contracts. Flexible substantive contracts will be the first choice.
- Negotiate bank terms with trade unions through collective bargaining. This means bank staff will be included in the bargaining group for partnership working and given release time to take part in negotiations.
- Make pay and benefits equal by making sure there is a dynamic link between the bank contract and the NHS terms and conditions. This means a commitment that any national pay awards will be mirrored for bank staff.
- Improve the terms of the bank contract by expanding contractual entitlements to bank contracts. This means using ‘normal’ hours worked regularly to calculate pay during periods of sick, holiday, maternity and other paid parental leave.
- Reward regularity by ensuring bank contracts offer a minimum number of guaranteed hours with incremental pay progression, access to paid training and development built in. This means opening up the same rewards to regular bank staff as substantive staff, including payments for short notice cancellation of shifts.
- Eliminate discrimination of the bank workforce. This means being accountable for Public Sector Equality Duties (PSED), engaging with unions on bank survey and bank Workforce Race Equality Standard data and taking action to address inequality for those working on the bank.
- Explain workers’ rights and bank terms clearly when people take up a contract to make sure they know what protections and risks are contained in the contract. This means no hidden bank auto-enrolment and full transparency, allowing staff to make a fully informed choice of contract. Bank staff should also be informed of their right to join a trade union.
- Ensure natural justice by building in the right to a disciplinary and grievance process to help workers feel more confident about raising a concern or facing a complaint. This means protecting the right of bank staff to put their side across and be accompanied and ensuring bank workers do not face retribution for raising a complaint.
- Keep bank workers safe by ensuring they get the same health and safety protection as substantive staff. This means recording and monitoring working hours across contracts, and access to the organisation’s occupational health services.
- Pay overtime rates for substantive staff who work above 37.5 hours per week. This means not using bank contracts for additional hours and overtime for substantive staff.
Can branches improve on basic bank terms?
Yes, we believe you can. If you have a partnership agreement in place that allows for collective bargaining, then you may already be able to bargain and negotiate to improve the bank contract. Your employer may not see it this way or have a clause excluding negotiation around bank contracts. In either case, using the Better NHS Bank Charter and UNISON’s Organising to Win strategy and 5-phase plan to build a base and find out the issues that matter to bank workers should help you get the employer around the table.
Download our template letter to send to the employer:
If you reach agreement with your employer to sign up to the Better NHS Bank Charter, or to share better bank ideas, please email health@unison.co.uk.
What can I do now as a member?
Check out the FAQs below and if you would like to join UNISON’s bank network to get updates on the campaign and help to shape it, please complete this short form:
And if you’re not yet a member but work in the NHS, join the biggest health union today.
FAQs
Better NHS Bank
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What is a bank contract?
A bank contract is essentially a zero-hour contract which allows a worker to undertake periods of work with an NHS employer. The contracts are designed so that the worker is under no obligation to take work and the employer is under no obligation to provide work.
There is no national bank contract and therefore the contract is a local set of terms offered by each NHS employer to its workers.
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How does pay work under a bank contract?
People are paid for the hours they work, which is normally based on a fixed point in the equivalent NHS Terms and Conditions pay band, plus relevant unsocial hours payments. Bank workers are entitled to holiday pay which is normally rolled up into the hourly rate (around 12.07% to make it consistent with statutory leave). Bank workers are not provided with annual leave but expected to comply with the Working Time Directive to ensure they take minimum holidays and rest periods.
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How does the 2024 pay award apply to bank staff?
What employers do in relation to bank staff depends on the terms and conditions they are employed on. Bank contracts often reflect NHS pay rates and we expect employers to increase pay rates for bank staff in line with the 2024 NHS pay award. However, employers may not immediately be willing to do this and therefore UNISON branches should encourage bank members to organise collectively around this issue and campaign for commensurate increases to salaries and back pay to 1 April 2024.
Branches should also want to work with employers to find ways to support bank workers into flexible substantive contracts where this is possible.
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What are the benefits and risks of a bank contract?
The main benefit is flexibility for both parties. The employer can choose how many bank shifts to offer out and is under no obligation to provide work. The bank worker can choose their shifts according to their needs, providing there are enough shifts. Bank workers might also be able to work for multiple employers under different bank contracts giving them flexibility and variation in their work.
The main risks are that there may not be enough work, or work in a pattern that suits the worker’s caring or family responsibilities or their lifestyle choices. The worker is also vulnerable to sickness absence because there is no contractual right to paid sick pay.
If employers do not monitor working hours, there is also a risk that bank workers might work excessive hours across various contracts leading to burn out and long-term health problems.
Finally, many bank workers do not have the same rights as substantive workers in the event of a complaint or issues being raised and there is also no automatic right to raise a grievance. Branches may want to discuss the barriers that this presents to bank workers feeling able to raise their concerns or speak up through the Freedom to Speak Up Guardians.
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Why do people choose to work on the bank?
Reasons vary but it is likely that bank workers either want the flexibility that they can’t get through a substantive contract or because they can’t get a substantive contract. Students in training often also have a bank contract to gain experience and pay whilst trying to balance their studies.
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Are there equality issues with bank work?
It’s important to know who works on the bank and how to strengthen arguments for staff with protected characteristics. For example, it may be that the bank has more female workers due to the need to balance caring responsibilities and the inflexibility of substantive contracts.
All bank workers were included in the 2023 NHS Staff Survey which again highlighted the disproportionate numbers of Black workers on insecure bank contracts. It also showed that over 80% of bank workers always and often work in the same departments or work area, and nearly 60% of bank workers always and usually work the same hours/shift patterns each week. For 70% of bank workers their bank work was their main source of income.
Recent articles have highlighted the discrimination and unfair treatment experienced by bank workers. The Health Service Journal report that
“Black British bank workers are nearly six times more likely to enter a formal disciplinary, compared to their [substantive] white colleagues, NHS England analysis has found.”
And the Independent reported that
“Tens of thousands of NHS workers on zero hour contracts, also called bank staff, have faced “unacceptable” levels of racism”
The 2022 bank-only staff survey also highlighted race factors for bank workers.
“Bank only workers are disproportionately likely to have ethnic minority backgrounds, with more than one in three bank workers being in ethnic minority groups according to data included in NHS supplementary information files, equality and diversity measures (2019). NHS workforce race equality standard (WRES) data shows that currently 24.2% of all NHS staff are from ethic minority backgrounds”.
Although related to outsourcing, the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) found that insecure work and poorer pay and terms and conditions disproportionately affect lower-paid ethnic minority workers:
“The commissioning-out of adult social care, and outsourcing of some roles in health, has resulted in more insecure work and poorer pay and terms and conditions than for those directly working for the public sector, disproportionately affecting lower-paid ethnic minority workers who are more likely to be working in these indirectly employed roles in adult social care.”
The report reminds employers of their duty to take ownership and accountability for the Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED) by undertaking and publishing evidence-based Equality Impact Assessments.
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Do employers value their bank workers?
Employers need to put their money where their mouths are. We hear from bank workers about being treated differently from substantive staff by their employer. This includes employers not automatically upgrading salaries following the 2024 pay award or paying the 2022/2023 lump sum payment to bank workers.
UNISON believes that employers should demonstrate that they value bank workers by improving their terms to make them equal to substantive staff.
Read our advice on making the financial case for better bank pay.
