NEW OCCUPATIONAL SPECIFIC CAREER AND REMUNERATION DISPENSATION FOR NURSES

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NEW OCCUPATIONAL SPECIFIC CAREER AND REMUNERATION
DISPENSATION FOR NURSES

• PRESENTATION TO H R LEARNING FORUM 5 MARCH 2008
• ST GEORGES HOTEL

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NEW OCCUPATIONAL SPECIFIC CAREER AND REMUNERATION
DISPENSATION FOR NURSES

• BACKGROUND
• D O H JOB EVALUATION PROCESSES
• PRINCIPLES FOR REMUNERATION I T O PER
• DEVELOPMENT OF MODELS
• MANDATES
• NEGOTIATIONS IN SECTOR
• AGREEMENT AND DIRECTIVES
• IMPLEMENTATION
• CHALLENGES
• LESSONS LEARNT AND STILL LEARNING

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NEW OCCUPATIONAL SPECIFIC CAREER AND REMUNERATION
DISPENSATION FOR NURSES

• No job is done until the paperwork is finished
• The show is not over till the fat lady sings
• The bus can only leave once everyone is on
  board
• IMPORTANT STUFF
• We started with ground breaking work with very
  little case history trying to correct personnel
  practices taking place over many years
• We started with the largest (and most diverse)
  occupational category 100 000 nurses
• We had to deal with different provincial
  interpretations, organizational models and
  autonomy.
• We had to negotiate in a difficult climate just
  after the public service strike which affected
  the health sector and the relationship with
  labour/ employees adversely

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BACKGROUND

• What happened after PSCBC 1/2004?
• Health and Social Services categories were
  prioritized for attention
• Social Workers were subjected to job evaluation
  and implementation was directed by the dpsa w e
  f 1 April 2004 (different applications by
  departments)
• No other categories received attention

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BACKGROUND

• New Regulations came in effect in 1999- replaced
  in 2001, job evaluation became the approach to
  grading in the public service
• Provinces/ Departments received autonomy
• Heading for a train smash when they started to
  develop their own grading processes for
  transversal categories
• Dpsa issued job evaluation directive to
  co-ordinate the process (Starting with EMS
  personnel)

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DOH JOB EVALUATION PROCESSES

• Established Job Evaluation Coordinating Committee
  (JECC)
• Represents all provinces and SAMHS, dpsa
• Make recommendations regarding health
  professional categories to NHRC and to Technical
  Advisory Committee of the National Health Council
  ( Committee of Heads of Health)
• 34 Categories (140 000 personnel)

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DOH JOB EVALUATION PROCESSES

• Finalized most of categories
• Obtained standard job descriptions and grading
  levels
• Useful for OSD processes

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PRINCIPLES FOR REMUNERATION I T O PER

• Move away from existing 16 salary levels/ notches
• Develop new salary scales
• Pay progression every two years (3)
• Create separate career streams within the
  occupations to provide for specialized functions
  (with separate grades)
• Provide for higher grade progression on
  production level to retain personnel
• Grade progression must be performance/ competency
  based
• Provide sustainable longer term remuneration
  solutions
• Create greater consistency across sector
• Obtain collective agreement and union/ management
  support

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DEVELOPMENT OF MODELS

• Based on the work started in 2005/6, JECC and
  DPSA
• DPSA personnel expenditure review recommended
  occupational specific dispensations to address
  unique requirements
• Various inter-provincial teams assisted NDOH/
  DPSA
• Treasury initially allocated R 1.1m, increased
• to R 1.45

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DEVELOPMENT OF MODELS

• Significant improvement at entry levels
• Incorporate scarce skills for specialty nursing
• Recognize those in specialty without
  qualifications (grandmother clauses)
• Improved dispensation for Nursing Education and
  Primary Health Care

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DEVELOPMENT OF MODELS

• Clearly defined management levels and
  appointment/ promotion requirements
• Recognition of experience introduced for entry/
  production levels

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MANDATES

• Complex cost calculations based on certain
  assumptions
• Authority for determining remuneration is a
  Minister for dpsa competency
• Cabinet Mandating Committee
• Information presented to National Health Council

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NEGOTIATIONS

• Public Health and Social Development Sectoral
  Bargaining Council
• Took more than two months since proposals were
  introduced
• Many full Council and Council Task Team meetings
  to obtain common understanding of proposals,
  revised mandates, frustration, different
  provincial inputs, revised models and costing
  process

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NEGOTIATIONS

• Finally signed agreement in September 2007
• PHSDSBC Resolution 3 of 2007
• Effective date for OSD 1 July 2007

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OBTAINING MPSA DIRECTIVE

• Directive issued on 28 September 2008
• Letter from DPSA
• Annexure for directing implementation
• Translation keys
• Establishment arrangements
• Copy of the agreement
• Copies of job descriptions
• PERSAL arrangements

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IMPLEMENTATION

• 80 of the job!
• At least 100 000 individual transactions
• Decentralized or centralized implementation
• Implementation workshops both national and
  provincial where required
• Joint arrangements with labour unions
• Involvement of HR Managers to drive process

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IMPLEMENTATION

• 2 phases for translation
• One or two steps depending on provincial capacity
  (increased the number of transactions)
• Each nurse had to be measured against
  predetermined criteria for translation (require
  individual assessment/ documentation for audit
  purposes)
• Short time frames for implementation

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IMPLEMENTATION

• Establish
• Provincial implementation teams together with
  Unions
• Obtain
• Commitment from HR Managers/ CEOs at all levels
• Political and Executive support for provincial
  processes

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CHALLENGES

• Non alignment of establishments
• People used outside their scope of practice
• Inconsistent reporting levels/ management grades
• Hospital/ health facility classification
• Service delivery models differ from province to
  province

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CHALLENGES

• Expectations were (incorrectly) created that
  everyone would receive significant salary
  increase
• Lack of labour union leadership to explain
  dispensation to members
• Lack of communication strategy
• Lack of management support to process (various
  areas)

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CHALLENGES

• Classification of nursing specialty areas
• Inconsistent application of agreement/
  implementation directive
• Lack of common understanding of agreement/
  directives
• Incomplete/unavailable information during
  development stages
• Lack of a proper qualification framework
• Challenging implementation environment/ lack of
  union participation at provincial level

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CHALLENGES

• Lack of capacity at implementation/provincial
  level
• We did not have time to do some pilot/ testing of
  proposals or site visits to do sampling
• Salary notches and scales are limiting options
  for developing salary structures/ grades (one
  notch every two years reduced the number of
  notches on the key scales)

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LESSONS AND SCHOOL FEES

• Obtain the best inputs into process (quality)
• Verify everything against the actual situation
• Communication strategy (dont rely on unions to
  do this)
• Share the work load as far as possible (task
  teams)
• Give attention to detail in documentation
• Understand both the principles and technical
  issues
• Benchmarking (verify/ compare notes)
• Use pilot sites to test options

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LESSONS AND SCHOOL FEES

• Involve the occupations (not only their
  management) and other stake holders
• Involve unions early in the process
• Keep record of relevant documentation,
  discussions with all the stake holders,
  decisions, models, calculations, presentations,
  press statements, speeches etc. (You are going to
  need it)
• Analyze capacity at implementation level and
  involve HR both strategically and operationally

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LESSONS AND SCHOOL FEES

• Monitor progress
• Go prepared and with clear mandate into
  collective bargaining (clear roles early on and
  involve technical experts where necessary)
• Deal with issues rationally and not emotionally
  (more patience and frustration tolerance)
• Prepare for sleepless nights, long hours of work
  and continuous self assessments

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THANK YOU