AIBU to expect to get paid for a day's work?

[dippymother]

I work Tuesday, Thursday and Friday in a pre-school, for which I am paid. Last Wednesday, the whole pre-school went on a trip to a local farm for the day. Lots of parents and most of the pre-school staff attended, including myself. I was looking after one 4 year old for the day and some of the other staff also had one child to look after. Four staff (the supervisor, deputy and two others) had no children to look after, they were just there in case of problems etc. One of them took photos of the day. When I got my pay yesterday, I noticed that I hadn't been paid for the trip even though the others had, but this seems to be because the supervisor has a policy of paying you if it is one of your normal working days, and not paying you if it is not a normal working day.

I was aware that Wednesday was not my normal working day, however the day was extremely long and tiring and I worked hard to ensure that the little boy who came on his own had a good time. I feel that it should have been made clear that I would receive no pay for the day and therefore, I would know in advance whether it was worth giving up my free time to go on the trip or not. Also I don't think it fair to expect me to be responsible for and look after one of the pre-school children, when there were other staff available who normally work Wednesday and who were not accompanying children on the day and they got their full day's pay.

I apologise for it being long and rambly but I am so disappointed and upset by this, I feel like handing in my notice. I can't afford to give up my days off for no pay and I had plenty of other things I could have been getting on with.

Of course, it was not the little boy's fault at all, and he did have a fantastic time but I feel let down and unwilling to put myself out for the pre-school in the future.

I think that's shocking and you should tell them you expect to be paid as you were working and not there to enjoy yourself.

Mention it to the supervsior first - it may have been an error.

I do understand how you feel, I work at a preschool and we are paid for any extra days worked or we swap each others days .

By the sound of it have other things happened to make you feel like handing in your notice ?

If there was sufficent staff there I would ask why you were needed to come along ? Did they specicially ask you to go - if so then they need tp pay you.

I know that alot of preschool/ playgroup staff are not in a union - as we get low pay and union subs are another cost ! Ia in a union speak to them but try and deal with it first with the supervisor .

YANBU

Also forgot to add - when we do overime it comes out the following month - so maybe you will get it in next months pay
but still worth checking .

Thanks for the responses.

Unfortunately no error occurred. The supervisor knew exactly what days I had worked this week. We get paid weekly so no overtime to look forward to.

The supervisor didn't specifically ask me to come, it was just that the little boy is one of my key children and the supervisor seemed to assume that I would want to look after him. I probably should have queried whether I would be paid for the day, but stupidly thought I would be if I was looking after one of the children, and was obviously representing the pre-school on that day.

There have been niggles in the past - eg I spent over a year doing the DPP on a Monday and didn't get paid, but accepted that because I wanted to do the course. I was supposed to be reimbursed for the cost of the course, but have only received half. This is probably because I was unable to work for nearly a year when my husband was ill with Leukaemia and was in hospital. I kept the pre-school fully informed and went back as soon as I could, but feel that I probably lost the other half of the course fee because of it.

YANBU - speak to your supervisor calmly and rationally and let her know that you expect to be paid - if she doesn't pay you she's a crap boss IMO but there isn't a lot you can do about it.

If she doesn't pay you, let it go - don't get yourself upset about it but make sure you don't do a days work for free in future.

Some people have no idea how to treat their staff do they?

YANBU.I used to work in a very small nusery and all staff were paid on trip days even if it was not thier normal working day.

YANBU - you should speak to your supervisor and explain that you assumed you would be paid for the day of the trip.