Being paid below minimum wage?

TELLIT01

Thanks for all the input everybody. I won't be able to provide any more info for a week or so as she will be away.

caronc

Schools are usually only open 190 days per year - 38 weeks once you take inset days off. Don't know if that helps.

LittleVoice

TELLIT01 wrote: »

Thanks for all the input everybody. I won't be able to provide any more info for a week or so as she will be away.

Will she be taking more than one week off for half-term?

TELLIT01

LittleVoice wrote: »

Will she be taking more than one week off for half-term?

No. Just the week, but we only generally see them on Wednesdays which is why it'll take some time to get more info. She's away next week.

TELLIT01

caronc wrote: »

Schools are usually only open 190 days per year - 38 weeks once you take inset days off. Don't know if that helps.

She has a calendar showing the dates she doesn't work. She definitely only has 11 weeks non-working, give or take a day or so. The school is a dedicated special needs one so I don't know if that affects the opening periods. These are seriously disabled kids.

Dazed_and_confused

Are you 100% certain she is paid monthly and not 4 weekly?

hyubh

TELLIT01 wrote: »

The school is a dedicated special needs one so I don't know if that affects the opening periods.

Is this a private or a state school?

TELLIT01

Paid monthly and it is a state school.

caronc

Doing some number crunching it seems as though your friend is being paid for 3 hours per day @ £7.50 for 190 days per year. This gives a gross salary of £4275.00 which works out at £356.25 per month which sounds like what she is receiving.
In my experience school escort jobs are "usually" 3 hours per day not 3.5 as that is what councils contract out for. (I'm not saying your friend isn't working more than that). It probably sounds pedantic but is your friend possibly working 1hr 15 in the morning and 1 hr 45 in the afternoon (on paper anyway)?
Holiday entitlement is usually included in the payment i.e. to be taken on what would usually be a working day.
State delivered special needs schools do tend to operate for the same number of days as other state schools mainly due to the teachers' contracts so 41 weeks is odd.

My only word of caution would be that if your friend pushes this they may find that rather than a wage increase that the job is then formally specified as a 15 hour job which could have tax credit implications which may or may not be an issue for them......

TELLIT01

No tax credits involved so that isn't an issue for them. As for official hours and what the contract says - she has never been given a contract in all the time she's worked for them.
Just as one example of the way they are treated, the vehicle they used broke down, fortunately after the last child had been dropped home, and she was told she had to stay with the vehicle until recovery arrived. That was 3 hours later and the company gave her and the driver £10 each for the inconvenience!