Missed 3 hours of lunch break

[ThereIsNoLeftFalangie]

AIBU to feel quite pissed off that I've missed out on 3 hours of my lunch break.
Work in a school, have been on quite a few trips for the last term. On trips the children get 30 mins lunch with staff eating alongside and supervising. Normally at school staff will get an hour lunch which is not paid. I don't mind missing out 30mins on the odd trip but it's taking the micky when im owed 2 hours. We're all expected to do things out of goodwill but thoses favours are never reciprocated by management. If they had to pay me for all the times I've worked passed my finish time they'd be in for a shock. Should I mention the 3 hours im owed?

There are a lot of people on this thread being very generous with the OPs time. Of course, as with most threads, it has now turned into the usual competitive bullshit "I haven't even had a toilet break since 1976, suck it up".

Loving all the responses from people posting at 10am on a work-day. Their careers advice should definitely be listened to... (Awaiting the "i'm on maternity leave from my six million figure salary city job" replies)

Normally at school staff will get an hour lunch which is not paid

I don't understand how you are owed anything for lunch hours missed; as you say in your op that your hour lunch break is not paid, so nothing is owed ?

Newyearoldme. You are a joy. Do you speak to people like this in real life? How rude and condescending.

I don't understand how you are owed anything for lunch hours missed; as you say in your op that your hour lunch break is not paid, so nothing is owed ?

Because if you work that hour instead of having a break you are not being paid for it

@0SometimesIWonder because surely on a school trip OP is working through lunch so is owed for the additional hours worked?

There are a lot of people on this thread being very generous with the OPs time

Yes, plenty of MNers are very generous with other people’s time and money

You know, if your job suddenly demanded you work half a day for nothing, would you do it?

And bear in mind, many schools are now MATs, with the top executives paid in the hundred thousands per year.

Schools are underfunded - but they are still a work-place.

Erode the working conditions of the poorest paid - in the dubious name of 'care' (a classic tool of exploitation for women) - and you erode working conditions in all workplaces.

True care for today's children is resisting that erosion.

Think: how are you going to feel watching your children working for next to nothing?

Fuck me, the NEU is so shit.

As a secondary school teacher, it's expected that we mark, do detentions, plan lessons during our lunch break because we have to many classes. I mean it sucks but your not alone in the exploitation of people who work in schools.

If the OP is a teacher and salaried, fair enough, suck it up. If she’s a TA and hourly, and not particularly well, paid, it’s a bit crap.

I’ve done both jobs - I agree completely. Teaching hours very slightly from week to week depending on how much needs doing. TAs, even if salaried, still have set hours and start/finishing times and that should be respected and handled fairly. I usually had an hour lunch as a TA but was sometimes asked to do lunch duty if there were absences for which I could claim overtime for - really what OP has been doing on trips is no different to that.

If they had to pay me for all the times I've worked passed my finish time they'd be in for a shock.

I've been salaried in the private sector for nearly 30 years. I'd be a millionaire if I got paid for every "extra" hour I worked.

Good luck. Trips rely on the good will of staff, especially residentials which sometimes run in half term holidays but staff never get the time back.

Yes, well OP won't.

Because her pay and progression prospects are already really fucking poor.

CareOfPunts GiveHerHellFromUs
Gawd yes, of course !
I've not had enough coffee this morning, clearly.

What about adult:child ratios on school trips. Are you happy for the ratios to be wrong so you can have your full hour?

I’ve been on school trips as a parent helper and none of the paid staff demanded that they have a full break.

If you’re only “owed” 2 or 3 hours you’re doing well.
Perhaps you’d be better in a job where you clock on and off for breaks? Supermarket or fast food?

I don't understand how you are owed anything for lunch hours missed; as you say in your op that your hour lunch break is not paid, so nothing is owed?

Because OP is working for an hour unpaid, which, if it takes her below NMW, is illegal.

some posters on here sounding suspiciously like C19 mill-owners.

I would talk to your union about it. I doubt anything will happen but until enough people speak out, the erosion of conditions will continue This and other comments.

What the fuck do you think teachers have beend doing for decades?

Have a read of some threads around here: Teachers moaning that their jobs are hard are just saddoes... those ones; the ones that have parents up in arms when teachers find a legal reason to strike and TELL everyone this is an excuse, they just want better work conditions, to be able to teach! the ones that bang on about teachers being shite, rude, uncommunicative etc etc.

And here you all are - saying what those teachers have been saying for decades, on behalf of a presumed TA... but according to some it would be fine to suck this up if OP were a teacher!

IT IS SHIT! YOUR KIDS DESERVE BETTER!

Every teacher knows that and has been trying to get the general public to understand that for years. As have doctors, nurses and many others in similar public service sectors.

If they all did as the most admirable here suggested you'd soon be crying that even more patients are dying on trollies, kids getting taught nothing etc etc etc.

Sof off from here, add this to your list of shit to ask your local MP; make it a reason you choose to vote!!

But stop telling teachers it is their fault!

How are so many teachers not getting their lunch breaks? I always assumed you went at the same time as the kids and the dinner nannies came in

Love this-dinner nannies.

some posters on here sounding suspiciously like C19 mill-owners. Many are teachers, being kept in similar circumstances. What are you, a voter, going to do about it?

I agree @curious. I don’t work in health or education but the goodwill of TAs, teachers, HCAs, and nurses, and their care for their students/patients has led to them being taken advantage of and having had the piss taken out of them far too long. Other workers wouldn’t be expected to tolerate it. Imagine, as someone outlined above, being a till worker in Asda and the expectation you should work for free for the sake of the customers.

Well, trying to vote out the Conservatives for a start.

But, seriously, the NEU has to raise it's game on this.

And that means getting teachers, TAs and other staff to act collectively.

School workers are in a good position to strike - we are vital to the economy (workers can't work if their children aren't at school) but no-one will actually die if we withdraw labour (unlike doctors, nurses and NHS staff).

We really, really have to get angrier about this and see it for what it is - exploitation.

I know you say you are angry - but are you angry enough to strike and stay striking when the Daily Mail call us traitors?

It has to stop.

It's destroying education.

Totally agree, CareofPunts.

I, for one, am furious.

Schools employ 1/10th of the graduate workforce. And many more non-graduates.

We are a huge workforce.

We need to stop seeing ourselves as altruists, prepared to put up with all kinds of crap, and act together to stop the exploitation of our labour as workers.

There are too many competing interests in schools: TAs, teachers, managers, whose competing positions within school hierarchies are played off against each other.

We need to come together and resist what is being done to working conditions.

It's already over and beyond time.

Somehow, we just do not see how incredibly powerful we are as a sector. And how unacceptable the exploitation has become.

There is too much masochism in schools, too much willingness to self-explain exploitation as virtue, too much willingness to justify exploitation being visited on other workers as 'part of the job', or never essay for the good of the children.'

It has to stop.

It needs to be called what it is: exploitation.

An ugly word for an ugly thing.

Then ALL unions need to tell their membership to ignore the legal framework for strike action....

... and people in geneal need to support public service staff instead of moaning about htings that er not properly understood, deliberatey mis reported and have sod all to do with the parlous state of the NHS, education, policing etc etc etc

USE YOUR VOTE! Nobble your MP. Get politically active!