15 Minutes expected before you begin

[ThatPearlkitty]

Inspired by another thread but a separate topic when eg the role is 9 to 5 paid hourly then why do some employers want people eg 15 mins before your actual start time why dont they pay for your time before then, yes i understand most roles is necessary eg coat, get ready for the day etc but then its free labour ?

Conditions maybe, pay... Depends on the level. Some of my very experienced colleagues are very badly paid.

Interesting. There aren't any pay rises for length of service? When I lived in a uni town these jobs were considered the best ones, but very difficult to get into.

Wow... but you must realise that that is very unusual, and that workers who do go for a wee several times a day (or even a poo) are not doing anything wrong, sneaky or out of the ordinary?

Not that I'm aware of. I think like academic staff, they reach top of payscale and get stuck there.

And what about periods? There's no way you everyone can wait until going home time or even break time.

It's a unionised workforce so there are yearly increments along the pay spine and annual negotiated pay increases over and above. Everyone doing admin at a uni takes home more each year. This is not the case for a lot of commercial sector admin workers.

Similar to public sector, but slightly higher pay for comparable work.

Pensions are similar to public sector but slightly less generous.

Overall uni admin work is a pretty good deal, money wise.

I'm academic rather than admin but I had many years of no pay rises once I hit the top of the scale. Increments can be negotiated but they certainly don't happen every year. My colleagues in admin are the same. The only way to get a pay rise once you're at the top of the scale, is to get promoted.

My friend in a call centre gets paid extra every time he takes a call that takes him past his finish time.

But you get annually negotiated wage increases, even if only to theoretically cover inflation and the increment spines are literally designated "one year" "two years" etc.

Glad to hear that

it depends on the fiscal situation. If there is a national agreement, then yes. If there isn’t (which is frequently the case), then no.

And when agreement is reached the increase is backdated.

It's all much better and more regulated than fending for yourself, alone, against a commercial employer with no union recognition.

Not necessarily.

I did much better in terms of pay rises when I worked in the private sector. Dh and I were on similar salaries when I moved to the public sector. He now earns 50% more than I do.

Our university has been able to delay any wage increase because of the fiscal situation. Most are the same. They have implemented rises for those on the lowest bands though, I am pleased to say.

But it's a shame to see staff who have worked there for twenty years plus on not much more money than new starters.

As long as you are ready to work at start time it shouldn’t matter if it was just two minutes earlier. It takes me less than two minutes to get my coat off and bag hung up. I don’t need to be twiddling my thumbs for the other 13 minutes. I do walk to work though so have more control over my arrival time.

In theory that's what we're supposed to do where I work. Stuff that though,none of us do it and we all start work on time

Obviously I don't know about your situation, but a lot of public sector roles come with pension plans that private sector employees can only dream of... but you often get the former complaining about getting less jam today whilst staying remarkably quiet about the much more jam that they'll get tomorrow.

You’re changing your argument now. First it was those of us in the public sector, particularly universities, are so much better try paid. Now it’s that our pensions make up for our shite pay. Make your mind up.

And for the record, I would have a much bigger pension if I had stayed where I was in the private sector as it was a DB pension and I would be on a much higher salary. I moved to academia for a variety of reasons. Salary and pension were only a factor in so far as whether the reduction was a reasonable trade off for the benefits.

It wasn't me saying that people in either sector were better or worse paid - my main argument was that paid employees shouldn't be expected to work for free.

It's clearly not as cut and dried as one is well paid and the other is poorly paid across the board; but a lot of people in the public sector will compare their wages unfavourably with those of people in equivalent private sector roles - and they may not always take into consideration the whole package.

Of course, they may indeed have done just that and concluded that their overall package is still much worse than in the private sector - in which case I guess it's up to them to decide if they are happy with that or, if not, seek to move across to the financially better sector for their career, lifestyle and goals.

Sorry. I didn’t check the username. I assumed you were the same poster going on about the fictitious annual pay increase.

I think it’s natural that people will focus on where they are now rather than where they might be in the future.

That said, whether they are ultimately better off depends on how long they live post retirement. If they live a long time, then their lifetime income between salary and pension may be higher in the public sector. If they don’t live as long, it won’t be.

Just because something isn't the same as your job doesn't mean it's fictitious. You said yourself you're not lower grade clerical. Hybrid admin/academic jobs within universities have different pay structures and agreements to lower grade clerical, academic jobs are different again.

Anyway I'm sure you're extremely hard done by.

What are your thoughts about those on minimum wage admin jobs being expected to give extra time to employers because they are white collar workers?

I and another person who works in a university both told you that there are not annual pay rises once you reach top of the scale. If there is an agreement, there is a rise but it’s definitely not annual. I have friends at work who are on lower grades in clerical jobs so I’m familiar with what they get in terms of increases. Usually those on lower incomes get a higher percentage increase.

I don’t know why you assume I’m hard done by. I moved from private industry to academia despite the hit on income and pension. I’m still happy with that decision.

Re those on any hourly wage, minimum wage or otherwise, being expected to work for free - I think that is completely unacceptable. If you’re hourly paid, then you should be paid for hours worked.

No probs

I do agree that the future can be a luxury for many people, who have no alternative but to consider the here and now; and indeed it can be something that some of them will never actually see.

At my work, I'm a swimming teacher, they expect us to collect an ipad from the office, arrange equipment on poolside before we start, and clear it away after the last lesson. That's easily 30-45 mins for every shift, and not paid for, which stings more, when if a class has no children turn up, we are expected not to change out of wet things, tidy equipment, but we need to assist another teacher, which can be more disruptive than helpful. Recently, a colleague was told she needed to arrive 30 mins early to set up, to cover a younger class, in the learner pool, due to sickness, which was extremely difficult for her due to childcare constraints.
Understandably, we must be on time for safety reasons, but that leeway, should be reflected from both sides, or paid on top on our contracted hours.

That’s awful.