NHS staff including nurses, midwives and paramedics will see a reduction of 30 minutes in their working week from April 1 this year.
The move follows a recommendation from a working group set up to implement a previous commitment to cut the number of working hours as part of the 2023/24 pay deal.
The Scottish Government said that if it is not possible for staff to receive their 30-minute reduction due to service or staffing pressures "they will be recompensed accordingly" until such times as the reduction can be accommodated.
READ MORE:
NHS staff need proper pay rise to avoid further strikes, union warns
Scot Gov finds £33m to fund NHS pay deal as cost of living gap soars
It is one of a number of measures to modernise the NHS Scotland Agenda for Change system and has been agreed with trade unions.
Other measures agreed include a consistent approach to protected learning time across all NHS boards.
The government says the changes will support workforce recruitment and retention.
Allied health professionals including porters will also see a reduction in their working hours.
Matt McLaughlin, Head of Health for Unison, said: "Across the development world employers are seeing the value of reducing the working week to improve the work-life balance for workers.
"Time and again NHS workers have been surveyed and expressed anger that they are underpaid, under resourced and overworked.
"Unison led the negotiations to secure this first step in reducting the standard working week in NHS Scotland so this announcement is welcome.
"We look forward to continuing to modernise our member terms and conditions and make the NHS a better place to work."
Health Secretary Neil Gray said: “Our Agenda for Change system recognises the value, dedication and hard work of our staff and makes NHS Scotland an employer of choice.
“We expect NHS Boards to work in partnership with trade unions and staff to reduce the working week.
"This presents an opportunity to modernise how staff are rostered and work, ensuring that NHS Scotland is a leader in flexible and family friendly working practices.
“I am grateful to both Trade Union and Employer representatives for working in partnership with us to develop these reforms to help modernise our service.”
Analysis of the initial 30-minute reduction will be used to help inform the best way to roll out the remaining reductions in the working week in future years.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel