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17TH ANNUAL CONFERENCE 2005 - Discussion Paper No. 1
Part Time Employment - Pro Rata Calculation of Remuneration
Clause 13 of the national DHB collective agreement (MECA) states that the calculation of pay, leave and other benefits for senior medical/dental officers (SMOs) working less than full-time for the DHB will continue as per the previous local agreements. It goes on to say that ‘During the term of the Agreement, the parties will meet and make every reasonable effort to develop a standard system for pro rata calculation’.
Such a meeting has not yet occurred to discuss this or other questions, but needs to take place before the next negotiating round to replace the MECA that is due to expire on 30 June 2006. The Association has to be clear on its own position before meeting with the DHBs nationally, and the decisions and/or discussions of Annual Conference 2005 will be vital in this. The challenge includes the fact that current systems of pro rata calculation of remuneration are closely linked with other important issues, in particular hours of work and sessional working practices.
The pro rata calculation question is possibly one of the easier matters, but nevertheless needs good and broad discussion with contributions from delegates especially from the standpoint of their own branch positions.
Existing Provisions around the DHBs
Schedule 2 of the MECA describes all these currently protected provisions. The variations developed during the 1990 era of individual bargaining; there are broadly three types of arrangement.
Formula A
1 tenth = 4 hours
Predictable progression so that 1/10 = 4 hours, 2/10 = 4-8 hours, 3 = 8-12
hours etc up to 9/10 = 32-36 hours
Four DHBs use this – Waitemata,
Formula B
1 tenth = 3.5 hours up to 6/10 being 17.5-21 hours
One 5 hour step to 0.675 tenths = “not over 26 hours”
7 tenths = over 26 but not over 30. 8 tenths = 30 to 34
9 tenths = over 34 hours
This was the historic formula before the individual bargaining era. DHBs using this now are Whanganui, West Coast and
Formula C
The tenth = 4 hours
but with the variation that the first tenth is 6 hours, so that
1 tenth = 6 hours, 2 tenths = 6-10 and so on with 9 tenths = “over 34”
For some reason this is the most common and is used in Tairawhiti, MidCentral, Wairarapa, Nelson-Marlborough, Canterbury, South Canterbury, Otago and Southland.
Others
Flexible arrangement but with a session “normally 5 hours” – this is used
satisfactorily in Counties-Manukau and
“Shall be agreed” between employer and employee (
department level (Lakes), with length suggested 4-5 hours. It is a variation of
Formula A.
Their new consultant contract talks about ‘programmed activities’ of 4 hours, with a full-timer having 7.6 per week and part time being a maximum of 6. We are not sure how the detail applies.
Analysis
Formula A is boring but clear and simple and has an upper limit for each step, which may make it less popular with management.
Formula C seems to be a way of discouraging part-time work and of extracting extra commitment (2 hours) for each level because of the size of the first “tenth”. It is especially disadvantageous for those on 1 or 2 tenths. We should get rid of this formula.
Formula B, on the other hand, seems to give an advantage to part timers up to 6 tenths, and probably was some recognition of fixed difficulties – e.g. transport – affecting part-timers. However, it is a little complex and provides a relative disadvantage around the 7/10 level.
Are there other ways?
We might advocate 8 sessions of 5 hours, with the consequence of a 10-hour day norm. This would probably be good for proceduralists, anaesthetists, those on shifts, perhaps pathology or radiology, but would not be as suitable for specialties like medicine or psychiatry where frequent ward rounds and clinics are the usual modus operandi. If this were applied, pro-rata calculation would either be as eighths or n/8 x 10, or the hours measured and the tenths given as n/40 x 10 (see later).
The
Are sessions an anachronism anyway?
When we undertake a job size – as many members may be doing now or soon as a result of local discussions – the unit of time is the hour. The job size process will have led to an agreement on the time required for the SMO to do his/her work in all its components – scheduled activities, after-hours work, on-call time, and the group of other various tasks included in ‘non-clinical time’.
The agreed calculated job size will be n hours. This should be the figure used by pay office to calculate salary. The main reason, then, for pro-rata tenths calculation is for assessing entitlement to leave, CME money, work-related expense reimbursement etc. Also, perhaps, when advertising a post the number of tenths is still expected.
Translation to an FTE fraction can be by the simple n/40 or, if tenths must stay,
n/40 x 10.
Departments may want to use sessions of various sizes for their own purposes of organisation and workforce planning; the description of a job in tenths may give the shape of the programmed week. For the individual SMO, though, the job should be expressed in hours per week for payroll, with pro rata calculation as above.
This arrangement may save a variety of problems and inequities that arise from translations, as seen in the existing formulae. However, we are aware that any change can have unforeseen consequences, and it is possible that this proposal may disadvantage some people and require some kind of protected ‘grandparent’ agreement for those individuals.
What is required of Conference?
Our question would be – it’s all about hours so why not keep it that way? The result is diminution of the importance of the “tenth”.
At its meeting on 22 September the National Executive resolved to recommend to Annual Conference that the Association support a shift to an hourly system (consistent with the principles of job sizing) with transitional protections and the flexibility to allow members to organise or continue with sessional blocks of time (e.g. half-days).
We ask all delegates to think about how this might affect them and the colleagues they represent. Please note any fishhooks you spot, and if you can think of a better approach, please formulate it. General discussion is expected with a decision resulting, so that the National Executive has a firm and clear stance for next years’ negotiations.
This would not preclude the satisfactory work practices based on identified sessions of time (e.g. half-days), which presently exist in DHBs such as Counties Manukau and
Recommendation
That Annual Conference authorises the National Executive to negotiate as part of the next national DHB collective agreement an hourly system for the pro rata calculation of remuneration provided that there are satisfactory transitional protection arrangements and the provision of flexible sessions of working time for both clinical and non-clinical duties.
David Jones
VICE PRESIDENT
ASSOCIATION OF SALARIED MEDICAL SPECIALISTS