Pay deductions

You will not be entitled to be paid for any day on which you were due to be working but take industrial action.

We know that it is hard to lose income. However, if we do not fight to improve both pay and working conditions now, we could stand to lose more and fail to make the necessary changes to make the role sustainable in the future. We need changes that reflect the demands and complexity of the consultant role, recognise the value of the profession, and ensure that becoming a consultant remains attractive to the next generation of doctors.

With glacially slow progress in talks with Government, this is the only way to make the Government take consultants and the issues that threaten our profession, seriously. However, if you feel that you are unable to take part in industrial action because of financial issues, we encourage you to make the best decision for yourself and your family.

Annual leave or zero hours

If you are on annual leave or a zero-hour day on a day when industrial action is taking place, your employer must not deduct your pay. This is the case even if you partake in picketing. You should not be called in to provide cover.

Maternity leave

Read our section on strike action and maternity pay.

NHS Employers have published advice to trusts (see ‘Pay and contract FAQs’ on the NHS Employers industrial action hub page) that the pay deduction calculation for employers to use should be calculated as one-twelfth of the annual salary divided by the number of days in the particular month that the action is taken, as per calculations on ESR. The guidance provides details about the possible methodologies which can be used to calculate pay deductions but is clear that no deduction should be greater than a calendar day’s pay..

Note also that this only applies to days when you are actually striking from job-planned duties. It does not apply to non-working days or days of leave that overlap with the period of industrial action. 

One shift equals one day

We expect a single shift to be treated as a single day for deduction purposes. This is regardless of whether it straddles one or two calendar days. So those working night shifts should not suffer greater pay deduction than colleagues working days.

When to expect the deductions

It is unlikely that your pay would be deducted on the same month as you took the relevant industrial action. This is because it takes some time to record the activity and for the necessary arrangements on the system to be made by payroll. It is important to your payslip each month to ensure that this deduction has been applied correctly.

'Christmas day cover' deductions

Industrial action might mean that you change the way you work on a day of action. For example, if you have a clinic and are due to be on-call, our advice is that you should perform Christmas Day only cover. Consultants should be paid as normal if they are working on-call as an agreed alternative to being on site to perform their normal duties. (more advice on on-call arrangements can be found in our guidance on action on the day).

Further guidance on pay deductions

If your employer seeks to deduct pay in any other way than we've set out, please refer them to the NHS Employers advice they will have received. If you have any further issues, please contact us for support. 

Calculating pay deductions

Sick pay and consultant industrial action

Workers who are absent on sick leave when industrial action takes place keep their right to statutory sick pay, provided they follow the usual rules for reporting sickness. Striking should not affect your occupational (NHS) sick pay.

Any attempt by an employer to introduce a rule which refuses to recognise genuine sickness absence during industrial action should be raised with your LNC. An employer may make enquiries into the legitimacy of any sickness absence, but this should follow all appropriate local policies.

Read about sick leave and consultant industrial action.

Pensions

Impact of industrial action on your pension 

When a member takes strike action, it is typical that they would not be paid for that day. Therefore, no service or pay accrues towards your pension benefits, and the day(s) are disallowed, and therefore effectively ignored from active service. This is confirmed in guidance by NHSBSA.

Impact for members with service in the 1995/2008 pension schemes

The way final pensionable pay is calculated in the 1995 scheme is that, on the date of retirement, there is a countback of three lots of 365 days of active service. The highest of these 365 days is your pensionable final pay. If there are strike days, they do not form part of your active service and, therefore, these days are ignored and, consequently, this count back period will be increased by the corresponding number of strike days you have taken. In the 2008 scheme the principle is similar however the final “reckonable pay” on which your pension is based is the average of the 3 highest consecutive years in the last 10 years before retirement.

Therefore, in the vast majority of cases, there will be no impact whatsoever on final salary pension (1995/2008) from taking strike action. The only exception to this is if you have had a significant recent pay rise that falls within the relevant period for calculation of pension. In this situation, the 365-day countback period would ignore strike days paid at the higher level of pay and, therefore, this could potentially extend to include a period of working days before the pay rise was in place. This may reduce the level of final pensionable pay. The impact of this is likely to be minimal unless there was prolonged industrial action but can be fully mitigated by delaying retirement by the corresponding number of days you took strike action for to ensure you have the full period of pay at the higher pay level. This delay could be particularly advantageous from a pension perspective if the industrial action secured a significant pay rise too.

Impact on members with membership of the 2015 pension scheme

The 2015 pension scheme is different, as your pension is based on 1/54 of your actual pensionable pay for each year. If you take strike action, you will typically not be paid for these days, they will be ignored or disallowed, and your actual pensionable pay for that year will be reduced. Consequently, the pension you accrue for that year will be reduced. The overall impact of this however is very small and potentially more than offset by gains in pay obtained via industrial action.

Further general points

It is worth remembering that as the 1995, 2008, and 2015 pension schemes are based on your level of pensionable pay, any rise in pensionable pay achieved through action will have a very significant impact on the total amount of your pension in increasing this.