Directed time task falling on days I don’t work

[Nothankyoujustthesame]

I am a teacher. Open evenings this year are both falling on days I don’t work. It’s a complete ballache arranging childcare and there’s really no need for me to be there (unlike parents evenings which I realise are important.)

Surely they can’t insist I am there given I don’t work those days?

No teacher is employed to work evenings, are they?

We have directed time in the evenings, such as parents evenings (obviously!) awards evening and open evening. They all actually fall on days I don’t work but parents evening I recognise is important. The other two I would argue are not!

What does your contract say?

No idea! I dare say it is knocking around somewhere but most teacher ones are much the same. The consensus is that you don’t have to go in days you aren’t contracted to work but it’s been specified in an email I do, so I wondered. I doubt there’s anything in my contract covering this.

I’d have a look at your contract and check exactly what is in there. It may be written in that attendance is required & expected for these things regardless of whether it falls on a usual working day or not.

If you are employed under STPCD, no they can't.

Can't insist you work on your non-working days if you're under STPCD.

As I once had to very patiently explain repeatedly to the dickhead aht who had rescheduled parents' evening at the last minute and was trying to make me feel bad about not attending.

What you can do:

Just say nope
Request to be paid at your standard rate, if convenient to you
Request time in lieu (but get that in writing)

As others have said if you are under STPCD you can’t be made to attend on days you don’t work. It’s obvious when you think about it as many teachers have other jobs or responsibilities on those days. Our head tried to make part timers come in for inset on days they didn’t normally work. They had to back down and also pay people who had attended on non working days in the mistaken belief that they were required to. I refused to attend because I would have had to pay for childcare while not getting paid. Teachers are used to working for nothing but working for a loss was a step too far.

You can’t be made to do anything on non-working days, including Parents’ Evenings.