Breaks on locum shifts as a resident

Residents are entitled to breaks when working locum shifts. The minimum for any worker, by law, is an uninterrupted break of at least 20 minutes, when working a shift lasting over 6 hours.

The BMA's position is that residents working locum shifts are entitled to the same duration of breaks as their substantively employed colleagues across the UK, and those breaks should be paid at the negotiated locum rate.  In England, for those working under the 2016 contract, that means that, at a minimum, you would receive a paid 30 minute break for every shift lasting over 5 hours, a second paid 30 minutes for shifts lasting over 9 hours, and – for night shifts exceeding 12 hours – a third paid 30 minute break as well. For those working in devolved nations or under the 2002 contract in England, at a minimum, you would receive at least a paid 30 minutes continuous rest after approximately 4 hours continuous duty

As locum shifts are not covered by a national contract, there is no automatic legal requirement to be paid for your breaks – provided those breaks are genuinely ‘protected’ to take place reliably without interruption or any requirement to remain contactable/on-site during the break. We would regardless though encourage and support doctors in pushing for the paid breaks they would be entitled to working on rotas under the full employment contracts, as set out above. 

Rotas for doctors are rarely designed to meet these conditions. If you are required to remain contactable, by bleep or phone call, or are required to stay on-site/available to be summoned back from your break early then it is not lawful for your break to be unpaid – even in cases where you are not, in the event, actually contacted or your break interrupted.

We encourage you, as either an individual or with colleagues collectively through your LNC, to clarify – or negotiate if necessary – prior to accepting a shift that breaks will align with those provided to colleagues working substantively on the rota, and check how you are able to receive breaks and that they will be paid.

If you work a locum shift, claim for the hours of work for payment, and then find your employer has ‘automatically’ deducted payment corresponding to a break, we encourage you to query and challenge this in line with our advice above. It will always be unlawful for your employer to deduct pay if no protected break was able to take place, for example if you were required to continue to hold a bleep and remain on-site during a break. For avoidance of doubt, we advise you to document on your locum timesheet (or equivalent) whenever no protected break is provided.

Locum fidelity clause

If you are working under the 2016 TCS and you would like to undertake hours of paid work as a locum, additional to the hours set out in your work schedule, you must initially offer these additional hours to the NHS via an NHS staff bank of your choosing.

These are hours of your choosing and you are never obliged to undertake locum work in your spare time. It is up to you to self-define your spare capacity and offer your availability at the times that suit you. If your employer informs you that they do not have a need for the spare capacity you have offered, you may then seek to arrange a locum shift through an agency.

You do not need to offer space capacity to your employer when the additional work you intend on undertaking in the specified time is voluntary or communal in nature, such as; event and expedition medicine, work for medical charities, non-profits, humanitarian and similar organisations, or sports and exercise,

You should inform your employer of your intention to undertake additional hours of locum work. Your employer should agree with the JLNC a local process for you to inform an NHS staff bank of your intention to carry out this work. In the absence of an agreed policy, schedule 3, paragraph 52 is still applicable to resident doctors who are working under these TCS.

Working hours

As a resident doctor you can carry out additional activity over and above the standard commitment set out in your work schedule up to a maximum average of 48 hours per week (or up to 56 hours per week if you have opted out of the WTR).

However, you are required to ensure that any additional hours of work do not breach any of the safety and rest requirements set out in Schedule 3 of the resident doctor TCS.

Pay

Your rate of pay will be set by the NHS staff bank.

The 2018 contract review set out that staff banks have authority to set rates of locum work. As such national locum rates outlined in pay circular and previously referenced in the 2016 TCS have been removed.