Should I be paid for training which is essential to my job?

superwhy

Thanks for all ur replies, my situation is that I am employed on a 'zero hour contract' as hours fluctuate week to week, paid just above minimum wage during week and £8 per hour for weekends. The kind of training is the usual stuff required for care work, - manual handling, meds management, POVA, food hygiene etc. but the courses can often take all day, meaning I lose out on a days pay, but I still have to pay for my children to go into nursery/after school club, leaving me severley out of pocket. My NVQ assessor mentioned something about it being the law that we should get 5 paid training days per annum but I don't know where to find out more about that, any suggestions?? Thanks again for all your help!

saintjammyswine

You could contact the CQC (Care Quality Commission) and ask their opinion on it, anonymously of course!

cookie54

my company was the same until last wk when we now get min wage for manuel handling and medication. The rest are unpaid. We do not get the certificates so we can not take them any where else so the employer is now giving us certificates instead of paying us as it is cheaper.

lynzpower

Cookie that is shocking!

Money_maker

My company is the same. Gutting for me as I only work evenings anyway. I have looked into this before but it appears to be all legal to not pay for the time. Apparently you need to regularly attend these courses to update skills and it's purely a case of not being allowed to work if you are not up to date on courses per the regulations in this industry.

We do get a 'certificate' though (reckon my 15 year old could knock up better ones for the in-house courses on his pc!).

Savvy_Sue

superwhy wrote: »

My NVQ assessor mentioned something about it being the law that we should get 5 paid training days per annum but I don't know where to find out more about that, any suggestions?? Thanks again for all your help!

I'd ask your assessor if they can give more info, or CQC as suggested above.