NHS nursing staff are owed millions of pounds in backdated holiday pay claims going back six years by bungling Scottish health boards.
Reviews into nurses’ pay have found that, despite rule changes in 2008, nursing and healthcare staff failed to receive unsocial hours allowance and holiday pay.
Trade union Unison claims payments worth £2m have already been belatedly made to 3,000 of their members in NHS Glasgow and Clyde.
NHS Lanarkshire owes a combines £1.5m to 1,488 staff.
And with another 3,300 cases set to be heard this year, the total bill for that one health board is set to hit £5m.
NHS Fife has already forked out more than £450,000 to 1,000 nursing and midwifery staff.
NHS boards in Ayrshire and Arran, NHS Grampian and NHS Tayside have all confirmed reviews are ongoing.
Since 2008, nurses and other healthcare workers have been entitled to extra payments on top of basic pay rates whilst on leave.
Tom Waterson, chair of Unison Scotland’s Health Committee, said: “Health boards are aware that they should have been making these payments since 2008 but senior managers have withheld money to alleviate issues with finance.
“In other cases it hasn’t been paid due to incompetence. But they have known this was coming and now we’re talking about a fortune.”
A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “We expect NHS Scotland boards to apply all terms and conditions correctly.
“Where this has not happened and there has been any underpayment, we expect boards to make suitable arrangements to ensure staff receive any additional monies due.”
