- Conference
- 2018 Health Care Service Group Conference
- Date
- 27 November 2017
- Decision
- Carried
Conference welcomes Unison recent guidance on apprenticeship pay and recommends it to all branches when negotiating pay rates for apprentices, as we believe that apprentices should be paid the rate for the job and not used to undermine our terms and conditions or be exploited because of their enthusiasm to work in the health service.
Conference recognises that there is a massive shortage if not crisis in staffing within the health service and that employers will be looking to apprenticeships to fill the ever widening gaps. As a union we encourage learning and see apprenticeships as a positive step forward providing they do not exploit those in them. However there will be some employers that will seek to exploit those who wish to have a career in the NHS by employing apprentices at rates that are unacceptable to us as trade unionists for example the minimum wage for young people under 25. This also goes against the guidance in the Agenda for change handbook which provides guidelines for staff working towards gaining qualification to specific posts.
Conference believes that those employers not following the good practice guide and who do not pay the rate for the job, be exposed and that the local branch be assisted in helping raise this as a campaigning issue, to ensure that apprentices are paid the rate for job regardless of age.
This branch requests that the Health Service Group Executive:
1)Write to each trust through an FOI request asking for their remuneration rates for apprentices and whether it follows UNISON’s god practice guide or Agenda for change rates;
2)Provide a press release for those areas where employers are not paying the rate for the job to expose them;
3)Assist branches and regions where Trusts are not paying to rate for the job to develop a local campaign should they wish.