Colleague furloughed - should I cover her lessons?

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I work for a small independent school. Quite understandably they have furloughed support staff and some teachers in subjects like PE. I teach an academic subject. Yesterday they furloughed my colleague who is part-time and mostly teaches in the junior dept and those lessons are probably not essential for now. However she does have some senior school classes. I don't want to go into too much detail, but I have a feeling I am going to be asked to create lessons and mark work for those lessons. I don't want to be churlish or mean-spirited when we should all be pulling together, but it's a significant amount of work. The govt rules state that they cannot ask her to do any work if she is furloughed, so can they really ask me to do it unpaid instead?

I wouldn't do it unpaid, but if they offer to pay you for the extra work (and you are able to do it) then I'd say that yes, it's about everyone pulling together to make things work. But if they've just assumed that you'll take it on without asking first and without paying you, that's really poor form IMO.

If she had a job to do and the job requires needing doing, then they shouldn’t have furloughed her tbh. If the workload is quite a lot more, then no, you shouldn’t be picking it up.

They can ask I suppose. I think the question to ask is why they furloughed her if she has some senior classes.

I wouldn't. Presumably you already have a 'full time' job that is harder than ever at this point.

I'd be firmly pointing out that however much I'm willing to help I cannot add someone else's job to my own as I do not have time.

You can furlough some staff and redistribute their work around others. As long as you don’t have to do more hours of work then you normal do it’s fine.

But of course it means I will have to do more work than normal if I do her hours too! I am willing to incorporate some of what she would have covered into my own lessons, because I am paid to create and mark them anyway. But I am also part-time (but have more senior school classes) and I really don't think it's on to expect me to create separate, additional lessons instead of her - I am part-time for a reason, and I have my own kids at home and want some time available to help them with their schoolwork too...

In your contract it will state something like “other reasonable tasks assigned by line manager” - so if, for example, the furloughed colleagues classes are doing the same material as yours, it wouldn’t be unreasonable for them to ask you to send them the work too. But if it generates hours more work for you, then it’s unreasonable. If you’re asked, check with your union before you agree to anything.

Also - keep your head down. Don’t ask. Unless you’re her line manager you have no responsibility over her work.

We shared classes at GCSE and she took responsibility for one aspect of the course. It's something I can fairly easily integrate into my own lessons, so I am happy to offer that as a solution, but I don't want to be online on a Monday when she would see those classes, delivering separate content, when Monday is supposed to be my day off. I think that is reasonable.

That’s fair enough. Just carry on as normal and if/when you’re asked, explain what you’re prepared to do.
She may just have to play catch up in September instead.

It's a tough one. I normally work 85% but it's been assumed that i'll be available online during that time. I've just accepted it because i'm.not doing what i'd normally be doing during that time (taking mum with alzheimers to appointments and social club).
But i would not be covering other work - you shouldn't be expected to do that. Independent schools are a bit of a law unto themselves though. How are they normally with regard tocover and staff time?

It is specifically part of the Furlough terms that staff can be furloughed even if their jobs are needed if they are unable to work due to childcare or other caring responsibilities. In which case other non-furloughed staff would obviously need to pick up the slack.

Yes independent schools are a law unto themselves! They're not unreasonable usually, but part-timers often have a battle to not get given duties for which they are not paid. I think I will propose my solutions and see what they say.

There should be union advice on this. Check your union website.

Quite understandably they have furloughed support staff and some teachers in subjects like PE. I teach an academic subject.

I don't know where to start with this.

FFS

I think you should contact your union for advice on this.

Furloughing support staff as they cannot work from home is quite common. As is furloughing sports coaches and some PE staff due to the nature of the subject.

@whatdoyoudonow, what's wrong? I said some PE staff, not all. Those who are delivering GCSE and A level lessons are still working, but a small school can't afford to keep paying those who did practical lessons only, when kids can do Joe Wicks. They are fine about it! By saying I teach an 'academic' subject I don't mean to imply superiority, just that it is examined, classroom based and the courses must continue remotely. Or are you saying it's not OK to furlough at all? The reality is small schools don't have much choice if they are to survive, I'm afraid.

This is a tough one and I'd hope your school doesn't put you in that position. If they do, I'd have to hoick up my Big Girls Pants and be assertive- either saying "I'm not sure I can fit this extra workload on top of my own" or "I'm happy to help, will I be paid for the extra workload?"

It won't be easy though.

Well, nothing has been said to me at all by SLT - but that's not unusual! I have sort of agreed with HoD that I will try to incorporate some of the content my colleague would have covered into my own lessons - which is relatively straightforward - but I am not going to go creating and marking the work from additional lessons. In the absence of any further directives I think that's OK.

@whatdoyoudonow what do you mean? Independent school is like any business. If you can’t do your job from home, you’re likely to be furloughed.

OP, the important thing to decide is whether you would be happy to do the extra work and get paid for it or whether you just don’t want to do it at all. It’s important to get that fixed in your own mind. If you would be happy to get paid, you could just go for a bright and breezy ‘how shall I invoice for the extra hours? Is there a timesheet template available to submit to payroll?’

In my area, one school has announced it is closing in July, another over 100 redundancies. I now realise the extra work I am doing at the moment is saving my job and I am less angry about it. I am doing more than I should, to protect my job ( and the furloughed staff’s jobs)
My friend who kicked up a fuss and had classes taken away said she feels she has put herself at the top of the list if redundancies are needed now.
Hard times for us all.