Exam board confirmed no pay

[RainbowBabyDreams]

I posted about this before... and have just had confirmation from AQA that as an examiner, despite having signed a contract to work this summer, as i have for maybe six or seven years, we are not going to be furloughed. It's not self employment so no help there either.

So that's it. Nothing. Aibu to think this is not fair when so many millions of others are being paid at 80%?

Why do people expect something for nothing? The idea of being furloughed is that jobs aren't lost for a few months and companies don't have to recruit employees back again in the autumn or whenever needed but that doesn't apply here because it's a temporary contract and you wont be needed again until summer 2021 ?

@RainbowBabyDreams could you try contacting Martin Lewis, the money saving expert bloke?

My ds is meant to be being furloughed ( school cleaner) but he doesn't normally get any pay over the summer holidays as he doesn't work so I'm not sure how furlough will work for him, if he ever receives any money.

Jingling, I say this to you with absolutely no malice, but what do you want me to say?

Ok I'll agree, people who have lost jobs paying £100,000 pa have lost more than me.

Is that all this site is about? Who has lost the most?

Perhaps someone who has lost a job paying that much had a bit more in the savings account than me. Perhaps they have enough left over to buy a new cot. I only stand to lose a fraction of what they have. Fair enough.

People who have nothing based on self employment criteria have it bad too, that's true. But I started this thread because something crap has happened to me, same as dozens of other people every single day who start threads. Should we just tell them all to STFU because other people have it just as bad. The definitive answer to the vast majority of threads on here could easily be "That's life!"

I know this is just the way it is. I just wanted to chat on a public forum about it because there are some incredibly supportive people on here.

As I said, no malice intended.

Devuskums, that's a great idea - I will, thank you! xx

Will be watching AQA to make sure they give back more than the others who are actually paying their examiners.

How will you know?

OP, if you were constructively dismissed then are you in proceedings with a claim against your former employers?

I know how crap it feels to have no money coming in when you expected it. I have lost £15K of income in 3 months and probably similar over the following 3 months, and I also don't qualify for any of the government schemes. Plus I have semi-seasonal role so the November-February period always brings in less.

However furlough was not designed to prevent individuals losing income it was created so that business did not go bust / make employees permanently redundant / and void a mass of long-term unemployed. You are not being made redundant (neither am I). Next year you will have income (so will I). It's tough. Really tough, but it's one season's worth of lost money. It's not my whole industry down the pan and a long-term future of unemployment.

No, I spoke to the union and they said I had no proof, so could realistically do nothing. That's in the past and I've accepted it. I've been trying to get supply work since then as I would struggle to get a new FT post having been pregnant off and on since last summer.

Fair enough, venus xx

The problem is that AQA's contract says they can change based on the number of entries, so they can reduce your number of scripts. effectively you have all been reduced to zero scripts.

For some reason they are the easiest to get jobs with but treat markers really poorly. I used to work for them but stopped this year as I didn't think it was worth the hassle.

Why aren’t you self employed out of interest?

My DH works in entertainment industry. He was scheduled for a big tour which of course is cancelled. He quite rightly won’t get paid because it hasn’t happened; unlikely but he may not have ended up doing the job, for whatever reason. He will get paid as self employed because it’s likely he would have been something to pay the bill even if it wasn’t that job at that time.

I'm furloughed from my business and I get 80% of £250 pm, because that was what I earned before lockdown for the work I was doing.
I can't claim for all the months following this because all work was cancelled. I can't now claim the thousands I would have earned.
It's costing enough to furlough people as it is.

I am on a zero hour contract so have no hours and no furlough. It's a bit frustrating especially as DH is furloughed at 80% and didn't get paid much in the first place. I've cancelled everything I can and reduced outgoings as much as I can and we will scrape by but it is frustrating!

@LuluJakey1

In my 30 years experience of teaching, by far the vast majority of teachers who have left on a compromise agreement have had to do so as a direct result of the crap leaders in the schools. Usually the Head and Deputy in collusion.

Your comment was absolutely shitty and totally unnecessary.

Ocr HAVE furloughed their examiners.

And realised I missed 3 pages before I commented. Oops.

Fuck me. Teachers (the ones who aren't in school looking after key-workers and vulnerable kids) are getting CANED for getting paid whilst busting a gut putting work together, creating resources from their own supplies, marking, giving feedback, doing online classes all whilst wfh, many juggling their own kids, lives and health and working very odd hours.

You want paying for not doing... erm... anything? AQA's contract says they can change based on the number of entries, so they can reduce your number of scripts. effectively you have all been reduced to zero scripts

I know lots and lots and lots of teachers who are working their arses off. I also know folk who are furloughed because their business isn't open/productive at the moment. I know someone who is the only person in the office not to be furloughed and is close to breakdown with the workload whilst his colleagues are day tripping to Southend, and my sister started a job in March and is one of the many thousands who don't qualify for any support.

I'm an examiner for AQA, and I didn't expect anything. I'm surprised OCR are paying out.

The way I see it, we all have to accept that we will all lose some money, whether it's loss of earnings, loss of holiday deposits.

You sound very down about it all. I'm detesting this situation and just want everything to go back to normal, but every day I just have to run through all the positives - we're not starving, no one I'm close to has died, we have savings. Yes, we're losing about £500 per month on DHs pay, and may lose all the money we've spent on holidays, but it could be a lot worse.

You'll get through this OP - you don't need a cot for the first 3 months anyway, they need a moses basket, and you can get 2nd hand baby stuff dirt cheap on eBay, because they grow out of it all so quickly. There are tons of moses baskets on there, some for as little as 99p - people just want to get rid of them.

@RainbowBabyDreams

I can see exactly where you're coming from. I've worked for exam boards for many years, usually in test development and marking for KS1 and 2 SATS. I tend to earn around und £5k a year. As I retired at Christmas, I applied, and received contracts for work that would have paid me around £7k, and factored this into my budget as I have a reduced pension. Obviously this isn't going to happen now. I've had emails off all the departments concerned that I won't be paid anything, but actually I think that's ok. The income I would have earned was earmarked for extras, such as a holiday. If I had been relying on that income I may have been stuffed! The one saving grace is that they have all said I don't need to reapply next year, my chusband ntract will automatically be issued.
I wish you well and hope everything goes well with this baby.

It just sucks massive hairy balls when you're relying on being able to work and relying on that money

So sorry for you and I hope your pregnancy goes well

@Soontobe60 I totally agree. It's nearly always bullying management.

OP I have no advice but I’m also usually an AQA examiner and am upset with their handling of the situation so you have my sympathies. Many examiners rely on this money and I know of a few who will suffer financial hardship as a result of no summer series. I think it’s a poor move from AQA; marking exams is already a painful process for basically peanuts so I wonder how many will come back. I know I’ll be applying to the other boards instead!

So

You work two months a year on a date-specific contract and you expect to be recompensed for not working when there is no work?

You're very aggrieved. I get that. But your pregnancies, losses, not working etc etc are nothing to do with the situation.
I think your anger is aimed at the wrong thing.

Sorry op this sucks. But there's loads of gaps. So please don't act like you are the only one hard done by. I'm newly self employed. So have no gov support. If you have a contract what does it say about breaking contract?

As a household, we have lost £5k per month since March as a result of Covid.

We don’t qualify to have any of that paid to us by the taxpayer. Despite being taxpayers ourselves.

It does suck when you had relied on that money coming in, however on a positive note, we didn’t have that work to do. None of us could have foreseen that ‘usual business’ would be prevented like this.