Rota help - zero days

I have just received my F1 rota for my first rotation and I had a question. On my rota, after 3 night shifts I have 7 days of zero days. It states: 'It has fixed zero days after one set of nights but also weeks where there are no oncall shifts rostered to enable you to take leave easily'

Does this mean that these 7 days of zero days do not count as fixed annual leave and therefore does not count towards my 9 days of annual leave for this rotation?

Hope my questions makes sense, would be grateful for any help :smile:

Reply 1

junior.doctor

'Weeks with no on-call shifts' I would interpret as meaning weeks that are just 8-5 etc with no OOH. As you normally can't take leave during shifts where you have OOH work.

Zero-hours days are literally just that - some will be mandatory rest breaks eg 48 hours after the end of any stretch of nights - some rotas will have more than that built in in order to make the average working over hours over a certain number of weeks balance out and to make the rota compliant.

The only person who can definitely confirm your query is your hospital's HR. But in England on the new contract, fixed leave is no longer a thing (even if realistically it sort of is a thing because there are so few weeks that are options for actually taking leave). So I would definitely confirm it with HR but from what you've described, that zero hours week will not contribute towards your AL, no.

Reply 2

Anonymous #1

Original post by junior.doctor

Thank you so much for this reply! I did not know that fixed leave was no longer allowed, so thats good to find out. From what you've explained I think I have my answer, but as suggested, I will confirm with my HR department. Thanks again!

Reply 3

Shirley999

Does this have anything to do with the "EWTD Voluntary Opt Out"? In this case would it be better to sign it?

Reply 4

La231

Original post by Shirley999

Does this have anything to do with the "EWTD Voluntary Opt Out"? In this case would it be better to sign it?

Rotas are made to be EWTD compliant before they even know if we've opted out so it's not to do with this.
In terms of opting out its up to personal preference, I was told that you only need to opt out of EWTD if you plan on working extra locum shifts which would take your weekly average to above 48 hours. Im not planning too so i wont be opting out, but you can opt out at a later point.

Reply 5

Lionheartat20

Original post by Shirley999

Does this have anything to do with the "EWTD Voluntary Opt Out"? In this case would it be better to sign it?

You can always 'Opt Out' in the future if you end up locuming a lot. I find it better to therefore not opt out to begin with, as you then have the legal protections of the European Working Time Directive rather than immediately losing them. Who knows if they would ever be useful, but best to have more protections than less in my opinion :smile:

If somebody later points out you are locuming a lot causing you to breach the EWTD, then it takes 60 seconds to opt out.

Reply 6

Shirley999

Thank you both so much!!! :smile:

Reply 7

Chief Wiggum

Original post by Anonymous

I don't think those zero days are annual leave.

Reply 8

nexttime

Original post by Anonymous

It shouldn't be annual leave.

Original post by Shirley999

Does this have anything to do with the "EWTD Voluntary Opt Out"? In this case would it be better to sign it?

No it doesn't.

I worked locums without ever signing a EWTD opt out, no one checked. Sign it if you need to not before imo.

Reply 9

Shirley999

Original post by nexttime

It shouldn't be annual leave.

No it doesn't.

I worked locums without ever signing a EWTD opt out, no one checked. Sign it if you need to not before imo.