Assimiliation

46.1 Staff on UK Whitley Terms and Condition and Pay prior to April 2006 will assimilate into the new pay system on the effective date of 1 April 2006.

46.2 For staff returning from secondment to their substantive post on the same contract of employment after the time of assimilation the protection arrangements set out in section 47 will apply.

46.3 Employees’ current pay for the purpose of assimilation into the new pay spines and bands, referred to below as ‘basic pay before assimilation’, is their annual full-time equivalent basic pay on the effective assimilation date plus the annual value of any job-evaluation related allowances (see Annex Q) plus the average value of any bonus payments under schemes that are discontinued.

46.4 Where an employee’s basic pay is already subject to protection at the point of assimilation the protected level of basic pay should be used in this calculation.

46.5 For staff returning from career breaks, maternity leave or other special leave, current pay shall be calculated as above but by reference to the current values of the pay and allowances received in the post they held prior to the break.

46.6 The following rules apply for assimilating staff into the new pay bands:

• the hourly rate of pay will be used for assimilation of all staff so that the postholder will move to the next equal or higher pay point based on the hourly rates
  
  
• in a minority of cases, basic pay before assimilation will be above the maximum of the new pay band. Where there is a difference, pay protection will apply as set out in table 8
  
  
• in the case of staff with an incremental date of 1 April 2006 under their previous pay arrangements, their basic pay for the purpose of any assimilation calculation will include the incremental increase payable on that date
  
  
• in the case where a post is matched or evaluated at Band 1 the post will be assimilated into Band 2. This will only occur once on assimilation.

Table 8

46.7 In the case of the minority of individual staff whose regular pay might otherwise be lower under the new system the following arrangements will apply to ensure that any such staff will be no worse off on assimilation.

46.8 Where the combined value of the payments before assimilation remains greater than the combined value of the payments after assimilation, the former level of pay will be protected for the period of time indicated in Table 8. These protection arrangements apply to the combined value of payments before and after assimilation, not to individual pay components, excepting the provisions relating to retention of existing on-call arrangements. This is effective from 1 January 2008.

46.9 If standard hours change during the period of protection, other than under the rules for assimilation into new standard hours below (for example where a member of staff changes from full-time to part-time employment), or if a staff member reduces his or her hours of work or level of unsocial hours working, the protected level of pay will be recalculated.

46.10 The period of protection will end when the total level of payments under the new system exceeds the level of protected pay, or when the protected person changes job voluntarily. As soon as possible during the period of protection, the skills, knowledge and role of staff subject to protection will be reviewed to establish whether they could be reassigned to a higher weighted job or offered development and training to fit them for a higher weighted job.

46.11 Staff with pay protection arising from changes unrelated to this agreement who are also eligible for protection under this agreement may, at the time of assimilation, elect either to continue with their existing protection agreement or to move to this protection agreement. 

46.12 Staff that are on the top increment of their pay scale before 1 April 2006 will have their increment date changed to 1 April. To alleviate a leapfrogging situation they will assimilate and increment on the day.

Example

Using table 9, staff member ‘A’ is currently on the top of the Whitley scale of £21,500 and has been for several years and therefore has no increment date. On the 1 April 2006 they will assimilate to £22,000 and 1 April 2007 move to £23,000 under the new scale.

Staff member ‘B’ is on £21,000 on the Whitley scale and has an increment date of 1 October. On 1 April 2006 they will assimilate to £22,000, on 1 October 2006 they will increment to £23,000.

Therefore staff member ‘B’ attains £23,000 in October 2006 whilst staff member ‘A’ has to wait until April 2007 to attain this even though staff member ‘A’ was ahead on the Whitley scale prior to assimilation.

Table 9

In order to ensure that this situation does not occur staff member ‘A’ will assimilate to £22,000 on 1 April 2006 and increment on the same day, for that year only, so that they receive £23,000 as of 1 April 2006 and are awarded any increments available within the band each year.

46.13 All other staff will retain their current incremental date

46.14 Part-time staff whose hours of work change under these Terms and Conditions may opt either to retain the same number of hours they currently work or have their part-time hours altered to represent the same percentage of full-time hours as is currently the case.

46.15 Under IOM assimilation staff whose current full time hours are less than 37½ hours can opt to remain on those hours, with management agreement. This will effectively make them part time.

Although part time members of staff are treated exactly the same as full time staff under these Terms and Conditions their reckonable service for pension purposes could be affected as they would no longer be paying whole time equivalent contributions.

Staff are advised to contact the Personnel Office, Superannuation Section for further advice. 

46.16 Any additional leave and general public holiday entitlements set out in Section 13 will begin to accrue from the effective date of assimilation. This will be 1 April 2008.

46.17 Length of service for the purposes of calculating the additional leave entitlements set out in Section 13 includes service prior to the effective date of assimilation (see Section 12 for provisions governing reckonable service).

46.18 Within the new pay structure all leads and allowances will be replaced by higher basic pay for the majority of staff. This supports simplification of the pay system and is consistent with the principle of equal pay for work of equal value.

46.19 Employers may use their discretion, subject to partnership arrangements at the JNC, to reward staff undertaking statutory, regulatory duties performed outside those required by the job description and/or measured by the NHS Job Evaluation Scheme.

46.20 The current value of national leads and allowances or other special payments, which compensate staff for elements of their work that are valued within the NHS Job Evaluation Scheme, have been taken into account in setting levels of basic pay in the new system. The allowances which it is agreed fall in this category are listed in Annex Q.

46.21 All other leads and allowances paid when staffs are assimilated into the new system will cease. The value of any such payments made as part of regular pay before assimilation will, however, be taken into account on assimilation to the new pay spine and band. If pay would be protected on assimilation the value of any payments would be included in the protected salary.

Example

Post holder with clothing allowance of £60 per year and telephone allowance of £9 per month (£108 per annum) will have £168 added to their basic salary for assimilation.

If basic salary was £12,000 and the post was banded such that the top increment was £11,500 the post holder would be protected and receive their basic salary of £12,000 plus £168 until the top increment of the band meets or exceeds the £12,168 earned by the post holder. 

46.22 The arrangements for the pay and banding of trainees are set out in Annex U.

46.23 The gateway system set out in Section 6 will only become fully operational when an employer has put in place reasonable arrangements to ensure that staff have access to development reviews, personal development plans and appropriate support for training and development to meet the applied knowledge and skills required at the gateway concerned.

46.24 Existing staff with at least 12 months’ experience in post will be assumed to have met the criteria for passing through the foundation gateway. When the gateway system is operational, they will, however, be subject to the normal operation of the new system at the second gateway when implemented.

46.25 It has been agreed by the Joint Negotiating Committee for a £500 lump sum payment, subject to tax and NI deductions, to be made to buy out the 2 years annual leave entitlement for the period 1 April 2006 to 31 March 2008. This payment will be paid pro rata based on the contracted hours in each month from 1 April 2006 to 30 November 2007 with the assumption that contracted hours do not change from 30 November 2007 until 31 March 2008.

If a member of staff leaves after the payment has been made and before 31 March 2008 a percentage of the lump sum will be deducted from their final salary based on £20.84 per month.

Staff must be employed by the Department of Health or the Department of Social Care and under the remit of the Modernisation of Pay Terms and Conditions Project or in receipt of an NHS Pension on the lump sum payment date to qualify. For the basis of this calculation the Whole Time Equivalent (WTE) will be deemed to be the WTE for the post prior to assimilation.

Examples

• A member of staff who started full time on 1 May 2006 would receive: £500 / 24 months * 23 months = £479.17
  
  
• A member of staff who worked 18.75 hours of 37.5 for the whole period would receive: £500 / 24 months * 24 months / 37.5 hours * 18.75 hours = £250.00
  
  
• A member of staff who worked 17.5 hours of 35 for the whole period would receive: £500 / 24 months * 24 months / 35 hours * 17.5 hours = £250.00
  
  
• A member of staff who worked full time and left in January 2008 after receiving the full £500 would have deducted from his salary: £500 / 24 months * 2 months = £41.67 to take into account the two months of the full period not worked.

46.26 Arrears of pay will be calculated using the original calculation and your new hourly rate. Therefore, if you received overtime this will be recalculated using your new hourly rate and then you will be paid the difference.

The reason for paying the arrears like this is because it is impossible to backdate a change to conditioned hours without filling in new retrospective timesheets.

Example

A member of staff originally received £150 for 10 hours time and half overtime at £10 per hour.

Their new hourly rate is £11.25 which gives an overtime payment of £168.75 so they would receive £18.75 arrears.

A member of staff received £220.00 for 22 additional hours at £10 per hour.

Their new hourly rate is £11.25 which gives a new additional hours payment of £247.50 so they would receive £27.50 arrears.

46.27 Any staff member who is currently afforded more annual leave than is under these terms and conditions and those set out in Section 13 will have their leave entitlement protected for 5 years from the date of assimilation.