Not being paid for time worked

[orangetree99]

My 16 year old dd has a job Saturday and holidays as a playworker. She only gets minimum wage of £4.89 per hour but loves it so all OK. My issue is that she doesn't get paid for all the time she works. Her hours should be 9 to 4.30 (the scheme runs 9.30 to 4) but none of the playworkers are allowed to go until everything is cleared up which can be anything from 4.40 to after 5. I drop her off and pick her up so end up sitting in the car for ages and estimate that since she started working there she has worked 4 hours for free. She doesn't want to make a fuss and it's her job so I will respect that but do feel they are being exploited. It's not the money but the principle (and the annoying wait in the car)

£4.89 is well above the national minimum wage for a 16 year old. Even if we take the additional time into account your daughter is still being paid well above NMW - that is only £3.87 per hour. Doing it this way is nice and simple for the employer - they don't need to record exact finish times every day and calculate payments based on actual hours. For the employee it means their pay is predictable and doesn't vary depending on the amount of clearing up required.

Employers do not have to pay overtime as long as the effective hourly rate including overtime does not fall below NMW and as long as they comply with any relevant terms in the employment contract. In this case I suspect that if the employer was forced to record clearing up time and pay employees for it they would simply reduce the hourly rate so that employees were no better off. Many jobs that pay an annual salary expect the employee to work overtime without pay if required to get the job done. So personally I don't think your daughter is being exploited.

I agree with prh47bridge, particularly as it just a part time job. The experience she is gaining is invaluable anyway. If she is happy with things as they are, there is no need to rock the boat.

Thanks for putting a different perspective on things. I had no idea that the minimum wage was so low for a 16 year old. I will take your advice and not rock the boat.

I agree with the others.

Unfortunately, it's a fact of life that the majority of the workforce goes above and beyond their contracted hours. 10 minutes or so here and there isn't a big deal. If she's working several hours for free then you need to start questioning if they're understaffed.

Thanks everyone. Yes I often work beyond my hours in my own job to finish things so know what you mean.

My dd is on a casual contract with no fixed hours and paid for what she works. On days she is booked to work a timesheet is filled in which always has a 4.30 finish regardless of what time she is allowed to go which sometimes is as late as 5.

I think the issue is that head office dictate the 4.30 finish (which is half an hour later than the playscheme ends) so they are not allowed to put down later. However, it takes a lot longer than half and hour to clear everything away and nobody is allowed to go until it is finished.

However it is a charity that runs these schemes and if she is doing half an hour extra every week its not the end of the world and I'm just leaving it. If this was a company making profit then I would encourage her to say something.

I think this is very normal. I used to work in retail and only got paid for the hours the ship was open, even though we had to be there at least a quarter of an hour before opening and usually there for half an hour after closing, tidying up.

Ship? Shop!!

I used to pay a young person on a similar manner the class ran from 4.00pm until 7.30pm. Official hours were 3.30 until 8pm but some weeks was 7.45 - others 8.15-8.30

At the time minimum wage about 3.72 but they used to get £26 per session.

They were paid

I always found in play schemes the last 30 mins or so were spent with the children either winding down or helping to clear up, can she do this so there's less to do when the children are gone?

Thanks for the suggestion WeAllHaveWings. It's a disabled playscheme so probably wouldn't safe to start packing away before the children have left as many children have a one to one playworker. Since it seems to be the norm not to get paid for clearing up time then I'm just going to leave it.

On the flipside if all the children go home early, then the staff tidy up and get out early but still get paid
Thats how it usually works
So it does even out eventually