Why is unpaid work just seen as a given?

[Letsdancetojoydivision]

In a school environment, i have an hour lunch break and 4 times this week I've had to stay 20-25 minutes into it to wait for late parents picking up their kids.
If it were on a rare occasion ok, but every day is too much, plus I'm losing nearly half my break.
It's happening to another teacher as well, and I'll be taking her class next week so I assume it'll be happening to me again.
I have mentioned it and I was told another teacher would be coming in to support but this has happened.
Not sure what to do, don't see why i should have to put up with this?
I'm also losing my 15 minutes unpaid break in the mornings.
However it seems like so many jobs are expected to do unpaid overtime and people just do it.

I hope you are in a union. If not, you should be, and talking to them about this, not asking MN (meant kindly, but this is really not OK on the part of your school)

They are valid issues, it's not that I 'just don't like the job', and yes I am definitely going to contact a union, if things don't change then I will quit

I don't think it's comparable to say 'no teachers get paid prep time' as teachers as usually paid a salary not an hourly rate. At £13 pH I can see why the OP is annoyed.

You are being exploited. When I worked as a teaching assistant (so didn’t have the responsibility for a whole class) my hourly rate exceeded £13ph. I got paid for my morning break too.

You either need to address this of a matter of urgency or look for another job, with a view to leaving ASAP.

Are you already in a union? If so, they will help you. But you can’t generally join a union specifically to get advice on an ongoing issue. Most unions have rules stating that a member must have joined at least four weeks before the incident that leads them to seek assistance.

We have to put at least half an hour unpaid break on our timesheets regardless of whether we take it, I probably take it once a week. I do occasionally eat a sandwich at my desk whilst working. Public sector.
It's not ok but it's also not usual.
On the flip side I had a family emergency last week and my boss told me to just take the day, paid, not use leave or make the hours up etc. Can you walk the children down to the school office to be collected from there?

Teachers (in the U.K.) are paid a salary, not hourly, so it isn’t as easy as saying we’re not paid for prep time, there isn’t really a set quantifiable number of hours of Directed Time.

Sorry I mean non-directed time is not quantifiable, directed time is 1265 hours per year.

I am paid for 3 hours each morning, but I'm often in that room for 3 hours 40 minutes. I'm paid from 9:30-12:30, no later, but I've been leaving at 1:05/1:10 because of parents. Managed to leave at 1 yesterday!
So that's roughly 35/40 mins unpaid at lunchtime I'm losing, on top of my morning prep time. It adds up.

And yes it's different on hourly wage rather than salaried.
Anyway posters are right, and there's no point me keep complaining, I'll give it another week then leave if it doesn't improve.

Your school need to put a late payment fee on childcare after 5 minutes or regular offenders.
My child's school does this.
That will make up for your lost break in cash at least.

Yes I agree they should.. would they actually, who knows

And none of them are coming from jobs far away, many of them are coming from the building 1 minute walk away. There is literally no reason to be late

Tbf, this is not a normal 'school environment' you're talking about. Seems pretty unusual set-up, only having morning lessons and it being for kids and adults. If you're only paid for three hours 9.30-12:30, I don't understand how you even have a 'lunch break'. You're off work from 12.30, surely?

Not saying your employer isn't taking the piss. Just saying it's not comparable to teachers in standard schools with full days, lunch hours, and expected levels of prep/commitment before and after the time school starts and ends.

No, i work in the afternoon as well. It's equivalent to a full day.

I work 3 hours most afternoons too (and have to prep for that). I've worked out that with the time I'm losing I'm on around £9.75 an hour, little over min wage.

Are you paid by the hour?

If so you have a point, but a lot of contracts say 40 hours a week, or whatever is needed to get the job done. My does. You are obviously still protected by legislation, but not by a sharp hours cutoff

Yes I'm paid by the hour, £13