Term Time Only - Pay Still Owed

[PumpkinFizz]

Hi, can I have some advice on Term Time Only contracts please.

I worked for one term as a Midday Supervisor up until the last day before the Christmas break. I was paid for the whole of December, so the school believes they have actually overpaid me. But given that my 38 week salary was spread out over 12 months, thus I got less each month than I actually earned, I believe they still owe me. They just keep saying they don't. Am I wrong? The maths seems pretty simple:

Annual Salary: £3,946 (paid over 12 months)
Weeks Worked Per Year: 38 weeks
Days Worked Per Year: 38 weeks × 5 days = 190 days
Daily Rate: £3,946 ÷ 190 days = £20.77 per day
Earnings for 71 Days: 71 × £20.77 = £1,474.67

My guess is that the school is correct on this one op

Yes, as others have said, although you had a contract to work 38 weeks over the year, you would have actually been paid for something like 42 or 43 weeks because you get paid for something of the school holidays. So where you’re dividing your annual salary by 190 days you should be dividing by something like 215 days (43 x 5) and then the calculation looks about right.

I would say that the £3946 salary is for 43.6 weeks - your 38 weeks of work plus statutory holiday entitlement of 5.6 weeks.

Therefore £3946 divided by 43.6 is £90.50 per week or £18.10 per shift.

Therefore £18.10 x 71 shifts is £1285.17

Ask them for the calculation. I was Term Time Only and when I left my role they underpaid me. I kept pushing back for the calculation to be corrected and eventually they conceded that they were wrong and I was paid the amount correctly. It was a few hundred pounds.
if you have Home Insurance see if you have legal cover as that might help.

For those interested in how this panned out, I went to the Payroll team who said they'd look into it and speak to the school, given that the bursar just doesn't respond. The next day I got emails from both confirming I will be receiving £170 next Tuesday as I had indeed been underpaid. Thank you all for your input. It all seems needlessly complicated!

Did they explain how they’d reached that figure? And why it had happened? Did that correlate what you thought you were owed?

This is a private school?