Pre-school workers get paid peanuts...!!!

Kelinik

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

As we were only running during term-time, that's all people were paid for. As they didn't earn enough to reach the level at which SSP had to be paid, we didn't pay that either. You worked: you were paid. You didn't work: you weren't paid.

That's us, not that I even have a contract. Anyway thank you very much for taking the time to write out those enormous posts and I'm sure someone else will find them helpful but in all honesty I just go in when they need me to work (2-3 mornings a week normally) and turn up to commitee meetings to vote on things so really don't want to get involved in fancy legal stuff. They've been running a long time and are inspected by everyone they need to be inspected by and in any case I have quite enough battles to fight in other areas of my life lol!

cazziebo

inkie wrote: »

You ought to see what vicars get paid that is peanuts!

I really don't want to devalue what they do, but in our case, the house is paid for, all house expenses including telephone are covered, and all travel expenses.

Not really comparable with childcare or shop workers...

Savvy_Sue

Kelinik wrote: »

That's us, not that I even have a contract. Anyway thank you very much for taking the time to write out those enormous posts

Sorry I do tend to go on a bit. And I hear what you are saying, but as a trustee of the charity you ARE partially responsible for ensuring that the charity complies with the law in relation to employment.

Kelinik wrote: »

They've been running a long time and are inspected by everyone they need to be inspected by and in any case I have quite enough battles to fight in other areas of my life lol!

I hear what you are saying, but as a trustee of the charity you ARE partially responsible for ensuring that the charity complies with the law in relation to employment.

Actually I'm surprised Ofsted does not check your staff employment stuff ...

Even if staff don't have contracts, that doesn't remove their rights. Certain things are assumed without a written statement of terms and conditions, and that includes the right to paid holiday ...

Would someone else on the committee be willing to look into this area? It might be seen as a conflict of interest if you start, and as you say you've got other things to worry about.

Yorkshire-Lady_3

Quote

If you're self-employed, you CAN charge what you like, work the hours you like, pay yourself whatever hourly rate you like. But if you're working in a playgroup, you are NOT self-employed!

Being a childminder is quite competitive in my area - I have to charge the 'going' rate or else I've have no children to look after.

Some parents are only interested in getting the cheapest care, others look more at the qualifications I have, together with where I'm situated and what resources I have.

Who would pay me £6 an hour, if everyone else is charging £3.50?

Sally x

Idiophreak

I used to work at HMV and earnt more there than my mum, who's a preschool supervisor.

Felt pretty bad for her...I've worked supermarkets and retail, but there's no way in the world I'd chose to do her job instead - all the extra responsibility, pressure etc. (plus, I hate kids...but that's a different story ). She seems to enjoy it though.

The whole paid sickness/leave thing I find quite interesting - my mum doesn't have these and I think it's pretty standard, so I assume there must be some legal reason they're able to do it...

What's more worrying is that my cousin started work at a nursery/preschool thing a couple of years ago and they pay her something like £3.20/hour. Apparently, because she's supposed to be doing an NVQ or something at the same time they don't have to pay minimum wage. Anyway, 2 years on and she's still not done *anything* towards any qualification. Dodgy.

Loobysaver

I work in a pre-school and am paid £5.30 an hour. I get paid for 38 weeks of the year and get 4 weeks holiday pay. If I'm off sick I don't get paid. I did query this with my supervisor and she said I'm not entitled to SSP.

I have no idea if this is correct but everyone else at work is treated the same.

I think another posted mentioned that a dinner lady can get paid £6.70 an hour whereas I'm on the minimum wage - What's all that about:eek:

Savvy_Sue

Loobysaver wrote: »

If I'm off sick I don't get paid. I did query this with my supervisor and she said I'm not entitled to SSP.

You don't get SSP if you're off for 3 days or less. Does that explain your situation? If not, I refer you to the Employee's Guide to SSP from the HMRC website (a mine of information for everyone!)

If your employer says you are NOT entitled to SSP, they should tell you why and what you can claim instead. It's sad if YOU have to give your employer this information, but it can be hard for a small employer to keep up with everything. (Perhaps especially hard if the person doing the payroll is a volunteer from the Management Committee of a playgroup who didn't manage to look away at the right moment. However, while it may explain some problems, it does not, IMO, excuse them - the information is THERE, easily available, and doing payroll is not rocket science!)

Loobysaver wrote: »

I have no idea if this is correct but everyone else at work is treated the same.

That's good news - in the past you could discriminate against part-timers, but these days you can't.

Loobysaver wrote: »

I think another posted mentioned that a dinner lady can get paid £6.70 an hour whereas I'm on the minimum wage - What's all that about:eek:

It is the law of supply and demand - if schools find they cannot recruit midday supervisors if they're only paying the minimum wage, they'll have to offer more. The costs are not directly passed on to parents, so it's an easier decision for a school to make than for a charging group to make.

And when I was last involved in primary schools, the midday supervisors were all being trained as Playworkers, NVQs etc. So while their hours are undoubtedly shorter than yours, they may not be unskilled.

Savvy_Sue

Idiophreak wrote: »

The whole paid sickness/leave thing I find quite interesting - my mum doesn't have these and I think it's pretty standard, so I assume there must be some legal reason they're able to do it...

I really can't see what legal reason there could be ... Trust me, if I'd been able to avoid paying SSP and holiday pay, I'd have done so - it upped our overall staff costs considerably!

(Please don't flame me - it's not that I didn't WANT to see us treat staff well, but making it AFFORDABLE was another matter! And when someone's only been in post for a week and then goes sick and is one of the few members of staff over the LEL and you STILL need to pay someone else to cover their job, it's not funny on the budget front!)

Keeping SSP and paid holiday separate, the employer MAY be able to reclaim some of the costs of paying SSP from the NI contributions they're paying to HMRC.

But there is no way of recouping paid holiday costs. They have to be budgeted in. I explained my idiot's way of calculating them earlier - fortunately we had them budgeted in from the start of the second club, with initial funding from the Lottery. If we'd had to implement holiday pay after we'd started I don't know how we'd have broken even.

It seems as if there's a mindset saying "oh, it's run by a committee, that's not a proper employer". Sorry, but a committee can be an employer, the committee is effectively running a small business, even if it's set up as a 'not for profit'. It's pretty thankless work, but that's no reason for the committee to think the law doesn't apply to them.

Idiophreak wrote: »

What's more worrying is that my cousin started work at a nursery/preschool thing a couple of years ago and they pay her something like £3.20/hour. Apparently, because she's supposed to be doing an NVQ or something at the same time they don't have to pay minimum wage. Anyway, 2 years on and she's still not done *anything* towards any qualification. Dodgy.

Your cousin could look at the hmrc pages and search for National Minimum Wage. Or ACAS. It is true that apprentices don't have to be paid the minimum wage, but if nothing's being done to qualify her, that is well dodgy and entirely unfair!

Rachie_B

Loobysaver wrote: »

I work in a pre-school and am paid £5.30 an hour. I get paid for 38 weeks of the year and get 4 weeks holiday pay. If I'm off sick I don't get paid. I did query this with my supervisor and she said I'm not entitled to SSP.

I have no idea if this is correct but everyone else at work is treated the same.

I think another posted mentioned that a dinner lady can get paid £6.70 an hour whereas I'm on the minimum wage - What's all that about:eek:

:eek: :mad: thats shocking !

Before i became a nanny i did a few cleaning jobs and most were around minimum wage ish,but one paid me £7.50 p/h !! which is more than i get as a nanny ! :rolleyes:

nickj_2

my wife has just given up a preschool job , she has loads of qualifications for it , level 3 diploma etc , she's a supervisor but only got paid £7 per hr , this did not include all the planning work she did in the evenings .
please remember that preschools and after school clubs come under the same ofsted umbrella , so they have to be inspected and come up to the required standards .

my wife now has started doing some cleaning and gardening , she's earning more without all the hassle that goes with it