Mr. Stephen Mulvany:

The expectation in the contract is that people will take compensatory rest days. That is for the hospital manager and clinical director on the site level, supported by medical manpower, which is local HR, to manage. The call-out has to have happened. The rest days are expected to actually be taken under the contract in the majority of cases. As colleagues have said, in cases where operational and clinical reasons do not allow for that, there is provision to then claim the actual payment if people have not taken the days within two months.

Our HR colleagues have issued and periodically re-issue guidance to the system around the active management of all aspects of our contract. One of those is monitoring and management around compensatory rest days. The preference is that colleagues will be able to take those as the rosters become less and less onerous. In this case, the roster is now a one-in-five roster, having been a one-in-three roster at the time. That is not a particularly onerous roster anymore and, therefore, the risk reduces. It is still a risk, however.