Your salary and associated terms and conditions are detailed in your contract.
If you work 12-hour shifts, you will be paid a pensionable shift allowance of 12½% of your basic salary. Under certain circumstances, the shift allowance will be withdrawn, for example, where a change of duty means that shifts are no longer worked.
If you are employed on a contract that requires you to work on a 5 day in 6 rota, you will be paid an allowance of 2% of your basic salary.
If you have a specific rostered commitment to remain continuously and immediately available when you are not at work, you will be paid an on-call allowance at the following rates:
If and when on-call an emergency arises and you need to attend work, normal overtime rates will apply for time worked in addition to the on-call allowance.
This policy does not form part of your contract of employment.
You may only claim payment for hours worked in addition to normal contracted hours (including overtime) if this has been approved in advance by your manager. This will be approved as either paid overtime or a flexi credit/Time Off in Lieu (TOIL) but cannot be claimed as both.
Under certain exceptional circumstances, you may be paid for hours worked in excess of your daily target working hours if approved in advance by your manager. For example, if your manager asks you to work beyond your normal finishing time to complete an urgent task and you agree, they may agree to pay you for the extra hours worked to avoid accruing an unmanageable Flexible Working Hours credit. In this case, you will be paid at the appropriate rate for the additional time worked.
Hours worked in addition to normal contractual hours will be compensated as follows:
Hours worked Monday to Friday, in addition to normal contractual hours up to the Full Time Equivalent hours (i.e. 37 hours per week) is treated as additional basic hours and will be payable at plain time rate and pensionable.
Hours worked Monday to Friday, in addition to normal contractual hours and above the Full Time Equivalent hours (i.e. 37 hours per week) is treated as weekday overtime and will be payable at plain time rate and non-pensionable.
Hours worked at weekends, in addition to normal contractual hours up to the Full Time Equivalent hours (i.e. 37 hours per week) will be payable at plain time rate (additional basic hours) and pensionable. In addition, a payment equivalent to your normal rate (weekend overtime – plain time) will also be made on a non-pensionable basis.
Hours worked at weekends, in addition to normal contractual hours and above Full Time Equivalent hours (i.e. 37 hours per week) will be payable at double time rate (weekend overtime – double time) and non-pensionable.
Hours worked on public and privilege holidays will be payable at double time rate and non-pensionable.
In all cases, staff are responsible for ensuring that they claim payment at the appropriate rate. Managers are responsible for ensuring that they approve additional hours claims for payment at the appropriate rate.
It is important to note that payment for hours worked in addition to contractual hours should only be approved for payment as overtime where full normal contractual hours have already been worked within the week.
Staff are required to work their full normal contractual hours before submitting a claim for additional hours or overtime payments. Where a member of staff has not worked their normal contractual hours in any given week, due to absence for sickness/leave or working in a flexible manner, contractual hours should be worked first, before an additional hours/overtime claim is submitted. Line managers may only approve payment of additional hours and enhanced overtime payment where full normal contractual hours have already been worked during the working week. This paragraph does not change the SPCB’s duties under equalities legislation and will be applied in a way that gives effect to those duties, wherever relevant.
In certain exceptional circumstances, if you are required on an ad-hoc basis to adjust your days/hours of work to accommodate business requirements your manager has discretion to apply enhanced rates for weekend working. For example, to accommodate working on a Saturday and Sunday your weekly hours are adjusted from Monday to Friday to Wednesday to Sunday to ensure you continue to receive daily and weekly rest periods in accordance with the Working Time Regulations.
The overtime rate for those who are contracted to work 37 hour per week is calculated as follows:
Staff who work part-time hours should refer to their Contract of Employment to see the specific overtime arrangements that apply to them.
This means that the pay you receive does or does not count towards the amount of pension you will receive. If pay is ‘pensionable’ a proportion of it will be deducted and paid towards your pension, in accordance with the rules of the Civil Service Pension Scheme you are a member of. The SPCB will also pay a contribution towards your pension for this pay. If pay is ‘non-pensionable’ no contribution will be made to your pension in respect of this pay.
If you are asked by your line manager to work overtime between the hours of 8:00pm and 6:00am, you may claim a night duty allowance of 33.3% of your hourly overtime rate in addition to the approved overtime payment. In order to claim night duty allowance you must be in receipt of an overtime payment.
As Night Duty Allowance is pensionable, it must be paid as opposed to granted as a flexible working credit. An example of this type of work may be during the election evening to ensure documents and resources are ready for new Members. This allowance is not payable to shift workers as shift workers already receive a monthly shift allowance.
If you are required to travel on official business outwith your normal bandwidth, you will be paid for the time spent travelling and associated travelling costs. In agreement with your line manager this may also be claimed as flexi credit. You will not be paid for time spent travelling and associated travelling costs between your home and normal place of work except where you are travelling to and from work at the weekend or on public and privilege holidays to work overtime. Travel time is paid at the same rates as those for overtime.
If you are promoted to a higher grade your starting pay on promotion will be the minimum of the scale of the higher grade. If you have previously worked at a higher grade, any time spent in the higher grade will be used to calculate your new spine point and progression date.
Example 1: You are promoted from grade 2 to grade 3 however you have previously worked on a temporary promotion basis on the minimum of grade 3 for 6 months. This means your starting pay on promotion will be the grade 3 minimum and your progression date will be accelerated by 6 months to reflect your previous grade 3 service meaning you will only need to work a further 6 months on the grade 3 minimum before moving up to the next spine point.
Example 2: You are promoted from grade 3 to grade 4 however you have previously worked on a temporary promotion basis on the minimum of grade 4 for 15 months during which you progressed to the next spine point on the grade 4 salary scale. This means your starting pay on promotion will be the same spine point you attained during your previous period of temporary promotion and your progression date will be accelerated by 3 months due to the progression credit previously accrued at grade 4. You will only need to work a further 9 months at grade 4 before moving up to the next spine point.
If you are covering the duties of a vacant post in a higher grade, you will be paid the rate you would be paid on promotion. Temporary promotion will be available to cover vacancies, maternity leave and long-term sick leave, but no other purpose. It will not be granted to cover annual leave or the absence of a colleague on official business. A minimum qualifying period of 4 weeks will apply.
We will make every effort to ensure that you are paid the correct salary and allowances. However, occasionally, overpayments may occur through, for example, retrospective unpaid special leave having been granted or as a result of an error. If such a situation does occur, it is your responsibility to draw to the attention of the Pay and Pensions Team any such discrepancies. If you have accepted an overpayment in good faith, we will recover the overpayment at a rate convenient to you.
The SPCB is required to make certain statutory deductions from your pay, e.g. income tax, national insurance and superannuation contributions. The SPCB may also deduct from your pay any sum which you may owe us during the course of your employment. Further details can be found in your Contract of Employment.
If you have any enquiries about your pay please contact the Pay and Pensions Team.