Unpaid shadow days?

danjackson2021

Is it legal for an employer to ask an employee to come in unpaid for training?

danjackson2021

They should at least pay travel right?

danjackson2021

If someone training to be a dental nurse and their employer asked them to come in for shadowing only unpaid 

surely insurance and other things need to be taken into consideration 

how do they answer when asked how many hours they are working by UC?

theoretica

Shadowing is not considered work for the minimum wage calculations - but you cannot be asked to do stuff for the employer.

Marcon

Are you actually in employment as a trainee dental nurse, or simply getting some sort of work experience at the invitation of the dental practice in question? If the former, what does your contract say? If the latter, you aren't an employee and aren't doing any work - just 'watching' - so payment of any kind is unlikely and nothing needs to be declared for UC purposes.

prowla

It does seem a shady practice.

danjackson2021

Marcon said:

Are you actually in employment as a trainee dental nurse, or simply getting some sort of work experience at the invitation of the dental practice in question? If the former, what does your contract say? If the latter, you aren't an employee and aren't doing any work - just 'watching' - so payment of any kind is unlikely and nothing needs to be declared for UC purposes.

Thanks this person is an employee with a contract 

General_Grant

So, is "this person" you?
If so, have you actually been asked to attend unpaid or is this a hypothetical question?

If the shadowing is training and you need training, should you be pleased to have the opportunity when it is likely still be taking the time of paid staff to spend some time explaining to you what they are doing?

Employees don't get their commuting costs paid.

[Deleted User]

I did recently see an advert for a role that said they wanted anyone selected for interview to come and do an unpaid week with them. 

danjackson2021

General_Grant said:

So, is "this person" you?
If so, have you actually been asked to attend unpaid or is this a hypothetical question?

If the shadowing is training and you need training, should you be pleased to have the opportunity when it is likely still be taking the time of paid staff to spend some time explaining to you what they are doing?

Employees don't get their commuting costs paid.

It’s not me 

someone else is being asked and I said I will ask on mse forums🙂

I thought that’s what min wage laws were supposed to protect against when a company tries to get staff to work for free

74jax

danjackson2021 said:

General_Grant said:

So, is "this person" you?
If so, have you actually been asked to attend unpaid or is this a hypothetical question?

If the shadowing is training and you need training, should you be pleased to have the opportunity when it is likely still be taking the time of paid staff to spend some time explaining to you what they are doing?

Employees don't get their commuting costs paid.

It’s not me 

someone else is being asked and I said I will ask on mse forums🙂

I thought that’s what min wage laws were supposed to protect against when a company tries to get staff to work for free

Are they working? You said shadowing?