Top public school settles out of court over paying the minimum wage

[spokette]

Malvern College, which charges fees of up to 25k per year, has agreed to an out of court settlement regarding one of its employees.

What I found ironic about this story is that they regard themselves as charity but refused to allow the exhausted woman a second day off per week from the school. I wonder if they realise that the year is now 2007, not 1807?

Staggering.

Sadly it's not that shocking once you have a bit of inside knowledge about how private schools operate. A lot of them are lightyears behind when it comes to following legislation.

The school treated her appallingly.

£3.75 an hour is not nearly enough to live on.

And for a job such as matron, on call 6 nights per week, surely she deserved a lot more than that?

And the school seem to think they have done nothing wrong

Disgusting.

Very glad she won.

I worked as a boarding assistant for a snooty public school in Herts for a while. The pay and working conditions were absolutely disgraceful. By far the worst employer I've ever come across, Victorian mill owners could have learned a few things about exploitation from those bastards.

Well, £3.75 is plenty to live on if you're working 121 hours a week. Surely the real issue is that she was working all those hours, forced to be on call an unreasonable amount etc.
I'm guessing that she couldn't get them on laws relating to the number of hours worked so she used min wage legislation instead, even though she probably earned what would have been a reasonable salary if it had been for a sensible number of hours.

It needs people like her to take action and bring this to light. No wonder the school were "extremely disappointed" that she exposed their shoddy ways.

Shameful. But that's how the rich make their money in the first place.

Well, part of the core purpose of these institutions is to show the emergent generation of toffs how to abuse their inferiors in a tasteful and traditional manner. Nothing incongruous about this really.

At the public school my brothers went to they used to call the cleaners etc 'skivs'.
But were terribly polite to their faces, of course.

I agree with you KAthy on that one.

£3.75 is shite, but if working that many hours then will bring home reasonable wage - but hours needed to get it are too high. But prob easier to get on min wage than hours.

Shite all round.

DO you think this will make them stop treating their staff like shite? I don't.

I bet they have a overestimation of their own importance and entitlement.