NHS unsocial hours pay: night, weekend and bank holiday rates

If you work evenings, nights, weekends or public holidays on Agenda for Change terms, you get a percentage on top of your basic pay for those hours. In England, Wales and Northern Ireland the rates run from time plus 30% for bands 4 to 9 on a Saturday or a weekday night, up to time plus 94% for band 1 on a Sunday or public holiday. Scotland has slightly different figures.

The figures here come from version 63 of the NHS Terms and Conditions of Service Handbook. Your employer or union rep can confirm how they apply locally.

The rates in England, Wales and Northern Ireland

Section 2 of the handbook sets the enhancement by band. The figures are the same in all three nations.

Band	Saturday, and weekdays 8pm to 6am	Sundays and public holidays
Band 1	time plus 47%	time plus 94%
Band 2	time plus 41%	time plus 83%
Band 3	time plus 35%	time plus 69%
Bands 4 to 9	time plus 30%	time plus 60%

The lower column covers all of Saturday (midnight to midnight) and any weekday after 8pm and before 6am. The higher column covers all of Sunday and all of any general public holiday, again midnight to midnight. Weekday daytime hours, 6am to 8pm Monday to Friday, attract no enhancement.

Scotland has its own table

Scotland’s Section 2 uses different percentages. For Saturdays and weekdays between 8pm and 6am it pays time plus 50% for band 1, 44% for band 2, 37% for band 3 and 30% for bands 4 to 9. For Sundays and public holidays it pays time plus 88% for band 2, 74% for band 3 and 60% for bands 4 to 9. Band 1 is shown as double time on Sundays and public holidays, but the table text is hard to read, so check that cell with your board. Scotland also has four public holidays across the Christmas and New Year period.

What the percentage is applied to

The payment is worked out from your basic salary, plus any long-term recruitment and retention premium. It does not include short-term premia, the high cost area supplement or any other payment. So a London worker’s enhancement is calculated on the pay point, not on the pay point plus supplement.

You receive one rate for each hour. If an hour is both a Saturday and after 8pm, you do not get the two stacked. Overtime payments and on-call payments are not calculated from unsocial hours payments either.

The more than half the shift rule

On a weekday (not a public holiday), a continuous evening or night shift can run partly outside 8pm to 6am. If more than half of the shift falls between 8pm and 6am, the lower enhancement applies to the whole shift. The handbook sets that test only for continuous weekday shifts, so ask your employer how a shift that falls below it is paid. Our guide to night shift pay goes through examples of long shifts.

A hypothetical example

Say you are a band 3 healthcare assistant and you work a Sunday shift. Band 3 gets time plus 69% on Sundays, so each hour is paid at 1.69 times your hourly basic rate. If you work a Saturday, the same band gets time plus 35%, which is 1.35 times. A band 6 nurse on the same Sunday gets time plus 60%, or 1.6 times.

Part-timers, unforeseen changes and ambulance staff

Part-time staff working fewer than 37.5 hours a week are eligible for unsocial hours payments. Extra time above standard hours is overtime and handled under Section 3, which is covered in the NHS overtime pay guide.

Where your employer uses the prospective system and asks you to change shift within 24 hours of the scheduled period, an unforeseen change payment of £15 is available. It does not apply to shifts agreed as overtime or to swaps, and it is not available under the retrospective system.

Ambulance staff in England who started or changed role from 1 September 2018 come under Section 2. Existing ambulance staff could opt in, and those who did not stay on a separate legacy system.

Pay, pension and leave

The handbook says unsocial hours payments are pensionable. How they count for sick pay depends on when you started and your salary. In England, staff who started on handbook terms on or after 1 July 2018, and staff whose basic pay is above £18,160, do not get them during sickness absence. See NHS sick pay and unsocial hours and your pension for more. For how the extra pay is treated on Christmas Day and other holidays, see bank holiday pay.

What to check with your employer

Ask HR or your union rep whether your trust uses the prospective or retrospective system, as that decides whether the £15 unforeseen change payment is available. Check that the Sunday and public holiday column is being applied from midnight to midnight, and that your payslip shows the enhancement as a separate line. If you are in Scotland, ask for the Scottish table. If you are on a legacy ambulance contract, ask which annex applies to you.

Your pay band is set out in the Agenda for Change pay bands guide.