It shouldn’t come as a surprise each year – and yet for many of us it still does… just how early it gets dark and how long the nights become as we head into Winter!
We’ll likely feel it most after the clocks ‘go back’ at the end of British Summer Time, this year in the early hours of Sunday 30th October. Those of us working it face that night with dread – often a 12-hour shift that is guaranteed to last at least 13 hours. Many recall that moment when the hour that you just worked has to be restarted and worked all over again for a second time…
This year there is, of course, a reason for those facing that shift to feel just slightly less gloomy about having drawn the short straw.
The Trust’s argument had long been that ‘the short night’ in Spring cancels out the extra hour worked on ‘the long night’ in autumn. This was of little comfort to those having to work that extra hour – unpaid – often having not benefited from being on shift on ‘the short night’ when the clocks changed in Spring.
As you may remember, since UNISON’s action last year this is no longer the case. Despite some scepticism from others outside of the Branch, Pip Griffin championed a move to eradicate this unfairness once and for all which was agreed by the Joint Partnership Forum.
Whilst we have not been able to increase the number of daylight hours, nor stop the changing of the clocks, we have ensured that all those working the extra hour are now paid to do so – and at no detriment to those working an hour less on the shorter night in Spring which remains paid as a full shift.
So, if you find yourself on a night shift on Sunday 30th October, please remember to claim for the extra hour you have will have worked. And remember that it was the action of your UNISON branch that has enabled you – and all of your colleagues on that shift – to do so!
If you’d like to join us in making change happen for the benefit of our members, then please speak to any of our reps about getting active in UNISON: SECAmb Branch Contact List
If you’d like to add to our strength as a Branch by introducing new members, then please encourage them to sign up here: Join SECAmb UNISON. (And remember, you will get a £10 Love-to-Shop voucher for each new member you recruit!)