Worried about June 1st. I work at school. Do I have any rights

paul2louise

I work in a team of 15 lunchtime assistants at primary school. Only 6 of us are working at present. The rest are either at risk, are isolating or don't have childcare
  I have been working since lockdown after the keyworker children. I haven't been offered childcare for my 9 year old in year 4 and have only been able to work because my husband is a furloughed engineer. 
I am extremely anxious about June 1st. I am in close proximity to the KS1 children I am currently looking after. This is going to get worse. Ok so I am a snowflake and lots of people are working on the frontline and have no choice. 
What are my rights. Do I have the choice to furlough. Noone has discussed my options. I just wait in call for school to ring me to work. For £50 a week is it worth the risk of bringing it into my home. I know that's selfish. Sorry. 

unforeseen

It is the employer's choice to furlough, you have no rights in that respect. 
If there is work for you then you can refuse to go to work if you so wish. The employer then has the choice of allowing you to take unpaid leave or starting the disciplinary process to dismiss you. 

paul2louise

unforeseen said:

It is the employer's choice to furlough, you have no rights in that respect. 
If there is work for you then you can refuse to go to work if you so wish. The employer then has the choice of allowing you to take unpaid leave or starting the disciplinary process to dismiss you. 

So i could say I am not returning until September. Then it's up to them to decide. Chances are that none of the others are going to be coming back in June either. Is it worth asking for a meeting to discuss my options. Social distance of course. 

paul2louise

So even if I think that social distancing cannot be enforced you have no position to say I don't feel safe to come to work. 

[Deleted User]

If your a lunchtime assistant then assume your working an 1 hour of each day so surely wear a mask. There's plenty of simple online tutorials for making different types of homemade masks if you cannot find a surgical or N95 type of mask. Maybe ask your school to obtain masks before asking you all back. If anything there is probably more chance catching it from other assistants than the kids themselves. 

poppy12345

You have no rights, you either go to work or you don't, if you don't then you won't get paid.

paul2louise

Daveym79 said:

If your a lunchtime assistant then assume your working an 1 hour of each day so surely wear a mask. There's plenty of simple online tutorials for making different types of homemade masks if you cannot find a surgical or N95 type of mask. Maybe ask your school to obtain masks before asking you all back. If anything there is probably more chance catching it from other assistants than the kids themselves. 

Noone is wearing masks. I asked my supervisor about them and she said school will provide them if we need them. I have a buff that I use when shopping. 

Undervalued

I am far from convinced that the supposed partial school restart will actually happen on 1st June. The BMA have backed the teaching unions stance that it is unsafe / too soon. Even the right wing gutter press is slightly backtracking from their strident rhetoric of a few days ago. A survey in my local paper (largely prosperous medium sized city) was showing that 77% of parents are opposed.

Ashworks

If your employer does not follow the Govt Guidance for Schools then you can refuse to work and report them, otherwise you should return to work. It might help to know that the latest research from other countries (published in the British Medical Journal) indicates that kids are much less likely to infect adults than other adults are....of course we don't have all the evidence yet though. 

paul2louise

Undervalued said:

I am far from convinced that the supposed partial school restart will actually happen on 1st June. The BMA have backed the teaching unions stance that it is unsafe / too soon. Even the right wing gutter press is slightly backtracking from their strident rhetoric of a few days ago. A survey in my local paper (largely prosperous medium sized city) was showing that 77% of parents are opposed.

My school is a big school. We are currently having around 30 key worker children in daily. The school are proposing foundation be split into 5 groups (70 children in a year group) 5 groups of year 1 children and 6 groups of year 6 children (85 children in this year group), plus another group for the year 2/3 keyworker children and same for the year 4/5 children. So that's 18 groups potentially. 
Dinner hall to be run from 11.30 till 1. 
How are 6 middays supposed to look after that. It's impossible. I really sympathize for the teachers. It's horrible.

RyanHello

It's safe for carers, postmen, delivery drivers, supermarket workers, nurses and other key workers. Why do people in schools think they are above all of them and demanding it unsafe for them? I know "CUZ OF THE FURLOUGH LIFE  "

In my opinion, the six week holidays should be cancelled and that makes up for the lost time.. easy, common sense approach.