EBME Forums Forums Free discussion Free discussion On-call travel allowance

I agree Adrian. It was mentioned by our union rep that staff may remove their vehicles from use for the purposes of travelling to work for call-outs and rely on public transport or taxis. I am not sure if this swayed the decision, but we are now claiming business mileage for call-outs. We also argued that we will try to troubleshoot problems via the telephone if we can, which also added to our standpoint that home becomes the base of work when you are on-call.

I think most trusts will accept that when you are on-call, your home is your base. As for business mileage it is a harder one to win. We stopped using our cars for a while when our trust started charging for parking, we used taxis for call outs. We could try that ploy again. A couple of our lads live quite a long way from the hospital so taxi bills will be quite high.

It's always the same with the NHS, why can't they leave things alone? Almost everything they try ends up being worse or more costly than the previous set up. What was wrong with Whiteley Council? What is wrong with the current expenses system? They are also trying to push though a new method of payment for on-call standby paymets that gives you a percentage of your salary rather than paying you for the actual periods of on-call that you do. It looks like you won't get paid if you cover for a colleague.

Note sure on the taxis but there is provision in the new travel expenses for pool cars and lease cars. You could always suggest the department buy cars for on-call!

As for what was wrong with the expenses system, they hadn't updated it for ages, the new system is linked to the AA so it reflects actual costs. Recommended accommodation rates is another one, does anybody actually manage to find a hotel for the rates published in the handbook these days?

A hotel for £55 per night....You must be joking.
Try getting any decent food for £20.00 per day.

Grotty B&B and McD's in return from being away from home and no overtime for the hours spent travelling there and back.

I expect all the managers stay in hotels for less than £55 a night.

Better stop before I get in to trouble.
RoJo