Employment Contract pre-school workers

[Columbiancoffee]

I am in the process of setting up a new pre-school and was wondering how other pre-school workers get paid. At present I only have a rough idea how many hours each person will work and will write this into a contract. BUT is it worth offering an annualised hours type contract? So that they have flexibility over when they work as long as they work the required number of hours each term/year?
The biggest bonus for me would be that I would hope to not have to pay overtime???!!! (They would run a flexitime system and carry extra or decifict hours)Does anyone have experience of this? What are the pitfalls?

[littlerach]

We get paid for the hours we do each month on 25th of th emonth.

Any additional hours we do get carrie dover to the next month.

We get some holiday pay over Xmas, a week at Easter and the remanider in the summer holidays.

Whilst all staf have contrcated hours/days, there are often courses to be covered, illness etc. Due to staff qualifications, only certain staff can ocver at certain times so I htink it would get difficult to use flexi time.

But ti is down ot the individual preschool really.

WE have looked into receiving a salary each month but again it becomes quite hard.
It is also quite rare to have a whole calendar month that school is open.

[Mayron]

We have recently reviewed the way our staff are paid - since the arrival of our new treasurer. Previously they sumbitted a timesheet with their hours on.

Staff are now paid a salary for their contracted hours ie. 15 hours a week multiplied by 44 weeks(38 weeks of term plus 6 weeks holiday pay) divided by 52 weeks of the year. This way they get a regular income every month, rather than some months, like over the summer, getting a little bit of holiday pay or nothing at all.

They can claim any overtime - such as lunch club, toddler group, trips, report writing and training on an overtime form which has to be submitted by 21st of the month.

We've been doing this since April and so far no problems.

Their actual written contract is based on the Pre School Learning Alliance model.

Re the flexi time, our staff do sometimes occasionally arrive late, leave early, etc but as they get paid half an hour before and after the session for tidying up/putting away, this doesn't affect ratios. I know that they start work earlier than they are paid for most days - and often work later than they are paid for! So we, as a committee, don't have any issues with this.

[Columbiancoffee]

THank you. I quite like the idea of the salary system, but its difficult to predict how many hours they'll be doing in the start, so may have to have that as a long term goal!
Think the flexi could be an issue with qualifications and ratios....hadn't considered that.....

[bumpybecky]

at the moment we pay half termly in arrears, with holiday pay added in (which has been calcuated incorrectly but that's another story)

from September we're planning to pay at the end of each month for the hours worked and then either pay holiday pay each month or save it all up until the summer holiday. Not sure which, it's up to the staff to decide

[cktwo]

I pay weekly with any overtime paid at the end of the month.
I could do you a good rate for payroll services?