11 April 2022

The ESR AfC Average payment method was introduced into ESR in 2013 to meet the requirements of the NHS Terms and Conditions to provide a representative method for payment of duties during annual leave instead of the previous WTD (rolled up) payment.

At the time Mersey Care introduced this change but the former North West Boroughs (NWBH) did not.

Due to National ESR changes taking place this month there will be changes for all staff where they receive either of these payments.

The changes are taking place because ESR no longer supports the WTD method as the percentage paid to staff does not accurately reflect payment of duties for enhanced hours, on call and overtime hours.  In addition the Flowers legal case relating to the treatment of overtime payments earlier this year needs to be taken into account for the calculation.

This means that former NWBH colleagues who receive a WTD payment each month will no longer receive this monthly payment, but when they are on annual leave will receive an AfC average payment subject to the criteria below to take into account the regular payments that have been received within the last 12 months.

The following information are changes that will affect ALL colleagues:

To be eligible for a payment when on annual leave ESR will automatically look back over the past 12 months to determine whether there have been any duty payments made in at least 6 months out of the previous 12 months.

The following groupings will be used and in order to receive a payment when on annual leave for any of the groupings below, there must have been a payment made in at least 6 out of 12 months for each group:

  • Group 1 – Overtime and Additional hours
  • Group 2 – Unsocial hours
  • Group 3 – On Call hours

Any staff who have assignments with less than 12 months reference period will have the reference period pro-rated based on time worked with the Trust.

There are scenarios that will be excluded from the eligibility check which are:

  • Parental Leave – maternity, adoption, etc.
  • Sickness lasting more than 29 days – absences that are 28 days or less will be included in the average calculation
  • Bank holiday annual leave – No AFC average payment is applied to this leave

It is essential that annual leave and bank holidays are recorded within roster/ESR otherwise an average payment will not be made when on leave.

For questions or further information, please speak with the workforce team.

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