Posted By Seth Pierce At present we don't financially reward our first aiders/fire marshals. I'm looking at the possibility of giving them some sort of reward for their commitment to this responsibility as they have all volunteered and were aware that there wouldn't be any financial gain. Can anyone provide me their views on this and a guideline reward. Best Regards Seth sdp@henrob.co.uk

Posted By Grace Deegan I have just come away from an annual in-house lunch that I hold for my Fire Marshals/First Aiders, it is a chance for them all to get together at this time of the year and allow the H&S dept recognise their support and committment to the H&S team. At the lunch €100 is given to each Fire Marshal/First Aider in the form of Bonus Bonds, which can be used in a number of different retail units/restaurants/sports facilities etc. My firm takes care of any BIK/PAYE issues involved which makes for very happy volunteers. It really is well worth the budget spend!

Posted By Roj Smith I arranged for £8 per month to be paid as a retainer in salaries for first aiders at the last company I worked for. The gesture seemed to be appreciated. Roj

Posted By Mark B Seth, Just a thought but does receiving payment for carrying out this role alter their level of duty of care? Anyone else have thoughts on this? Regards, Mark.

Posted By Roj Smith I don’t believe that payment does alter a first aiders duty of care. A first aider is should give “treatment” to an injured person only up to their level of trained competence and to summon further medical assistance. It is the employer’s duty to provide the cover rather than the employees responsibility. I have worked in organisations where First Aid Training was compulsory for all staff and an integral part of the job, which meant no additional payment. In some organisations I have worked in, where first aiders were volunteers, some received a token payment. In others they did not. The offer of payment did not seem to make much difference to the proportion of staff that volunteered. The way training is viewed by others is part of the company culture. All training can be viewed as unproductive. It is the benefits that accrue as a result of the training that count. I always found that the biggest problem was convincing the line manager to release their staff for training rather than resentment of other staff. Sometimes, the fact that the company makes a token payment can be used to convince the line manager that their own boss thinks that training some of their staff is of value to the company. What is important is that the First Aider feels that their employer values their skills and that they are part of a team. The actual means for doing this, whether it is done by a £2 a week increase in salary, a £75 bonus at year end, a meal or simply being thanked by the MD is less important. As they say at this time of year, it is the thought that counts. Roj

Posted By Dave Joyce At my last Company we paid £10.00 per month as a direct salary addition. This was a twofold payment based firstly upon the additional responsibilities that were placed upon First aiders and secondly that, due to their additional skills they may be drawn into situations outside of the workplace that would not come under the Company Insurance umbrella and this payment allowed them to take out the additional insurance run by the St John's Ambulance scheme. There was no checks to ensure that it was done though.... Fire marshalls were not rewarded in any way.

Posted By Gerry Knowles The last Company I worked for we paid all first aiders an annual payment which was around £500 per year. We did however have a selection process for first aider and an extensive training programme. This did ensure that we had high quality people. Just for information we also had a large emergency response team who also received an annual payment of the same amount. They also received extensive training for which they received an overtime payment. Expensive I know but we did have a highly professional emergency response team which menat that insurance premiums were very low. Gerry Knowles

Posted By J Knight Interesting discussion. To take up the point about reward being potentially divisive, it was in practice so at my former employer's. The grumbles weren't very strident though, and were controllable to an extent by pointing out that the extra payment had been agreed by the staff asociation. Looking at the rates offered, we paid very much towards the high end, since 20p an hour adds up to almost £400 on a 37.5 hour week. I think part of the reason we did it (and in fact they still do it) was that trained 1st Aiders are required as part of Care Standards; although this of dubious legality my former employer wouldn't (and won't) challenge it and felt that since they had to have them they should pay them to ensure the 'required' cover, John

Posted By Gilly Margrave Public service union UNISON did a survey of first aider payments a while ago. Now obviously this refers to those naughty unionised feather-bedded public servants (like me) but it does give some idea of the range of payments around. http://www.unison.org.uk...ety/doc_view.asp?did=219 Gilly