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the bma rota check: are you being underpaid?

stop silent underpayment: use the bma rota checker, track breaks and actual hours, exception report properly, and trigger work schedule reviews when needed.

The Bottom Line

  • Underpayment usually comes from <strong>rota design</strong> or <strong>recording</strong> errors, not malice—fix the system.
  • Use the <strong>BMA Rota Checker</strong> to test compliance and identify pay-driving components.
  • Exception reporting is your leverage: it creates evidence and triggers a <strong>work schedule review</strong>.

The hidden truth: if it’s not recorded, it didn’t happen

The NHS is procedural by design. If you regularly start early, stay late, miss breaks, or cover gaps without reporting it, you become “free labour” by default. The fix is not complaining—it's measurement.

What the rota checker actually does

The BMA rota checker is an online tool for resident doctors in England to check rotas under the 2016 contract. It helps you spot safe working issues and mismatches between planned and actual work that can drive pay errors and compliance problems.

Break theft is the most common invisible underpayment

If you miss breaks and never report it, the system interprets your rota as workable. Repeated missed breaks should be exception reported—otherwise nothing improves, and the rota remains unsafe.

Exception reporting: think ‘audit trail’ not ‘complaint’

Exception reporting records departures from your work schedule: hours, rest, and training opportunities. The endgame is a work schedule review if the problem is recurrent. This is how you fix the root cause (rota design) rather than chasing individual payslip corrections forever.

Recent reforms: more confidentiality and direct routing

Exception reporting processes have been reformed in some settings to route reports more directly to HR and the Guardian of Safe Working Hours, increasing confidentiality and reducing conflicts.

Weekly system: 12 minutes to protect your pay and safety

1

Step 1: Track actual start/finish times

Use a simple note: date, shift type, start, finish, breaks taken. Keep it factual.
2

Step 2: Record missed breaks explicitly

Write “break missed due to clinical workload” with one line of context.
3

Step 3: Compare to the work schedule

If actual deviates (time/rest/training), log it. Patterns matter more than one-offs.
4

Step 4: Exception report promptly

Do it while details are fresh. Attach your log if your local system allows.
5

Step 5: Trigger review if repeated

If the same issue happens repeatedly, request a work schedule review—this is how rotas get redesigned.
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Step 6: Reconcile with payslip monthly

Make sure nights/weekends/additional hours appear correctly. If not, escalate with evidence.
Practice

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SourceBMA: Check your rota (rota checker)
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SourceBMA: Exception reporting reforms (summary and FAQs)
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SourceGOV.UK: Maximum weekly working hours (48-hour average)
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