Confusion over part time hours at new job...can anyone help?

[BarrenFieldofFucks]

I'm due to start a new job in a few weeks at a local college. 10 hour contract initially.

Have been mithering them for what days I am due to work for nearly three months as term starts next week and they have finally confirmed two days at 0900-1630 essentially.

Apparently the extra hours are breaks and as such unpaid.

This presents a real problem to me, I'm in effect paying childcare for over 8 hours at work, but only being paid for 5 of them.

If this is the norm then ok, and I'll have to rethink as I will be in deficit. It seems a bit odd though?

It's what's known as 'trapped time' (and could be viewed as discriminatory by singling out part time workers for less favourable treatment than their full time counterparts. Query it first with HR, informally. If no joy, get the union to email on your behalf to do the same.

I don't work in a school anymore but when I did,I left the premises when I was in a break ( being unpaid)

So you have to take 50% of your hours on top, as breaks, on the premises unpaid. Sounds strange to me.

Sounds like zero hours 'FE contract to me.
When I did FE, i was paid 26 per teaching hour. I made it work by teaching courses that were short with minimal marking.

Sounds pretty standard for part time teaching to me. You don’t get paid for non-contact time. That’s how it works at my school. You are paid for the hours you teach which doesn’t include breaktime or lunchtime or any free periods.
When I worked part time I had a lot of trapped unpaid time (secondary school) but had to pay for child care. I did all my marking and prep in this time. When I increased my hours and we moved to a two week timetable I had a different day and half days off each week and childcare was so expensive I ended up going full time.

I think if I were teaching I would feel differently about it. But as a minimum wage assistant paid term time only I'm not convinced.

Look at your contract, breaks should be specified.

If they're not paying you they cannot insist you stay on the premises .

If you are only working 5 hours a day you don't need to have a break - if it is breaks then you should be allowed to leave the premises.

Are you doing teaching or classroom support? Many college contracts are on a sessional basis so dictated by the teaching hours involved.

This is what they said:

It looks as if you get 15 minutes break at 10am on Monday then 1hr and 15 min lunch between 12 & 1.15pm. You then have another 15 break at 2.30pm.

On Tuesday, you have a 15 minute break at 10am, a lunch break at 12.15 and a break in the afternoon at 2.30.

That’s 7.5 hours at work and 1hr 45 off in total, on the Monday at least. More than 5 hours working time, so unless it’s very different on the Tuesday, it will add up to more than 10 hours total anyway.

It’s up to you. It may simply not be possible to arrange your working time in such a way as to reduce the length of your day. If it doesn’t suit you, decline the offer.

This is why I'm glad I left teaching.

In the job I do now I'm paid to be present even if not in contact with clients, like most other jobs - funny that. On an hours actually worked basis it works out vastly better paid than teaching despite not requiring a postgraduate qualification.

When I initially resigned from teaching I became a childminder and was also better off once I factored in not paying for my own child's childcare.