Mat cover and summer pay

[Familygal1]

I'm a permanent teacher working PT (2 days) at a school. There may be an opportunity to increase to 3 days (max I want to do) on the basis of a maternity cover. The cover begins in September and ends July 27.

I don't want to work the extra day and miss out on the summer pay for this, especially given that I'll have worked 95% of the year for it, so feel the extra pay is 'owed'.

How would you handle this moving forwards? As I'm a permanent member of staff, I don't want to cause problems for myself.

This may help. I had a maternity cover which should have ended last Easter (Easter 25). However the school at March asked if I would like to extend the contract. I got the "impression" that they didn't actually need me to say but they were doing this a a favour to me (you had you know the school). I said fine but they would have to pay me for August.

A period of time then followed that they did not talk to me at all with respect to paying me for August and I was told that this had been confirmed 2 days before the start of the Easter holiday. I stayed until the end of the Summer term.

So this seems similar to the position that you are in. The school knows you and you know the school. They have asked you to extend. You are only looking at 6 weeks pay for the Summer holiday.

If you do not take this position then the school will have to advertise (and this costs money) and at this stage of the Academic Year it is unlikely they will get someone, which means they will have to rely on cover supervisors or agency staff. For a maternity cover this is not a good idea. I have seen this in a Secondary school and it does not work.

So I suggest that you have a chat with the school and see what happens. There is a teacher shortage and good staff are difficult to find and so you will have not difficulty in finding another position.

As for the school I mentioned above. The first day of this Academic year they phoned me asking if I would like to cover a maternity starting in January. For some reason I turned it down.

Hope it works out for you.

Thank you. They have already advertised the position but didn't find anymore so re-advertised with the applications closing after half-term. They said I can do 3 days if they still don't get anyone but I'm wondering if it'll be worth doing for a year not to get paid over the holidays. 🤔

Be upfront, politely state what you have said here, unreasonable to work all of the year and miss out on the holiday pay. I would be tempted to hold a firm line, yes will do if it runs until 1/9 next year, otherwise no can do.

Thank you! I may do this and see what they say. I know they've been struggling to find someone to fill the position but equally don't think they'll want to pay me and person coming back from leave at the same time!

Have a conversation with your line manager / HT and ask for all agreements in writing so that you have this.

It shouldn’t be an issue to be fair but I would definitely have a paper trail to cover yourself.