EBME Forums Forums Management Professional Issues Agenda For Change AFC job offer

We've just received our new pay offers under AFC. It's band 5, unfortunately there is no indication of R&R payment. Anybody else in the same boat?

What grade are you currently on, and how much experience do you have, if you don't mind me asking?

We haven't been assimilated yet, but I will post as soon as I know.

As they say, "Resistance is futile." I just hope that appealing against their decision isn't.

Currently Im a Trust grade 8 extended (by R&R).

This equates to MTO3 roughly, and Im mid band.We have techs here with 10+yrs experience.

Top of band 5 equates to a £2.5K pay cut,which is just about the level of R&R we get, funnily enough.

Whats annoying is that we have the AfC guidelines which state Qualified MTOs have a "prima fascia" case for R&R.

Out of interest, did you feel that you had a case to identify any so called 'specialist skills/Qualifications' (eg. renal, A+V etc.) as part of the JD/Role for the post ?

I thought you could opt out of AfC if your Trust already uses non Whitley scales like those in Sheffield. Would this apply to you?

Even if your pay grade is based on the Whitley grade but you are on a Trust contract you can opt out. Only people with old NHS contracts can be made to accept AfC regrading. It is the Government and not the Trusts that have implemented AfC remember. Those on Trust contracts can opt to stay on them, which is anybody who has changed jobs since the Thatcher era.
And if you are on a NHS contract have a word with your HR department about changing on to a parallel Trust contract then you can keep your options open.
Robert

We based our JD off the national profile for a specialist technician. We all work on specialist equipment (A+V & x ray equipment etc) but to a greater or lesser degree.
We can opt out of AFC, but our progression through the trust payscale was done by annual bonus (which may be withdrawn or the goal posts moved)

When you received notification of your band you should have been given a sheet showing the levels you were given for each job factor.This is what you can base any review on. Can you let us see what levels these were? You get one review with no appeal after that.

We missed the required minimum figure for specialist medical engineer by 11 points. We have also had it confirmed that the pay offer does indeed include R&R as it's assimilated into the offer. Also our trust has decided not to include pay protection for staff on trust contracts. So anybody who's been in this post over 8 or so years, loses out, as they are now getting paid more than the top of band 5. If they were to move to AFC then they take a pay cut. If I were to move to AFC, I would be in the short term slightly better off. I don't think I'll accept it though. Also R&R payments are going to be reviewd at the end of this year, so its possible they could give anyone still on trust contracts an R&R payment of Zero. Agenda for change? It looks like its been a cost saving exercise to me.

Robert, you have added another interesting compenent to the already complex equation. I guess most of us are entitled to choose to remain on our current Whitley scale. However the Department of Health have said that the uplift of Whitley scales last month is to be the last. Therefore those on their last increment will have no more payrises so in the long term AfC will be preferred option. I guess the governments stance on ensuring whitley scales are capped is a way of ensuring that everyone eventually transfers to AfC bands. Or do Trusts have the power to apply local increases to Whitley scales?