Free lunch?

[kevh_uk]

I've recently started a new job as a Maths Teaching Assistant in a school.  Since i'm a departmental assistant my role is to not only help out in the class room but also do some clerical work, manage the store cupboard, and do some after school lessons sometimes...

I'm paid a salary (which is horribly low.....�15103 p.a.) but my contract states i'm to work 36 hours a week, i've been starting school at the nasty time of 8.30 and my head of maths says that technically i should be staying til 4.30 so that i'm doing 7 hours a day, 5 days a week making 35 hours, and then says i should be doing an extra hour somewhere too...

My question is...since i'm paid a Salary wage, does that not automatically mean that i get paid for my lunch hour, that's the impression i was always under.  If this is the case then it means i could leave at 3.30 every day like everybody else does (admittedly i have been leaving at that time anyway but at least i wouldn't have to feel guilty about it)

[Hammer]

Your lunch hour is generally not paid. I am on a 35 hr per week salary and have to do 9 to 5, 7 days a week (technically 40 hours, but less lunch breaks equal 35 hrs).

 

As far as I'm aware this is standard practice.

[natalie_1982]

I'm on 37.5 hour a week (7.24 a day) and as far as I've always been aware lunch breaks are not paid for. 

However, couldn't you work through lunch (marking, teacher stuff, etc) and thn leave at 3.30.  Although, you have to consider that you do have pretty good hours considering the holidays you get,is 4.30 such a bad finishing time?

 

Plus, don't the students have a break time?  Which would be another 20 (?) mins break.

[5029]

I am on a contract wage, I do 7.5 hours a day, not including my lunch break.

 

So i would say your employer is correct

[kevh_uk]

Thanks guys, i wasn't entirely sure...

I'm gonna run some lunch time revision clubs and do admin over my lunch with a sandwich or whatever, because as much as i like the school i aint hanging around after 3.30 if no-one else is!

Cheers

[natalie_1982]

I feel cheated, all my teachers told us that they stayed well into the evening doing marking and stuff.  They lied.

[Jules001]

most teachers do stay on beyond that and a lot of them I know get into school about 7.30 - 8.00 am , it is just teaching assistants usually have a fixed number of hours to be used when it is most advantageous to the running of the school

[Scarlett]

I am a teacher and believe me, going home at 3.30 or even 4.30 does not mean that you finish work then. I go home and start planning for the next day- marking, sorting out resources, making worksheets, finding videos, writing out and learning new songs to teach. I eat at about 9pm and then crash out. Every day is like that!! Teaching is REALLY hard, and I am looking elsewhere for my wage in future. I can't stand the fact that I have no outside life, except in the holidays.

[Kev_UK]

Most companies DO NOT pay you for your lunch hour, but DO pay you for a 15 or 20 minutes morning break.

Under the women and young children at work act (1975 ?) they are entitled to a 15 minutes PAID break after 4 hours work. To allow woman to have a break and not men would be sexist, to allow young and not old would be considered ageist.. so I believe this applies to everyone now, regardless of age or sex.

If you are in the union, ask them.

[punkychicken]

You can't work through your lunch break.  Working Time Regulations 1998 state you have to have at least 20 minutes break which is not paid for teaching assistants.  If you think you can cheat the school out of the cash they pay you for working your contracted hours then you are wrong.  Don't expect to last through your probationary period.

[Sproutstick]

...and I would also like to add that I think you are being a tad greedy as well.  You state that your salary is "horribly low", but to be honest I have seen a lot worse!!  I take it that you're probably based down South, but I still think that �15,103 for a teaching assistant's job is pretty reasonable.  I mean, for God's sake, with that attitude you're not going to get far!!

Stop being so darned pedantic about hours and just get on with forging a successful career for yourself!!  You get nowhere unless you work hard.  I have no degree, am 24, live in the North of England and am currently applying for jobs with salaries of �42k plus.  2 years ago I was earning �8K (yes - you did see that right!!), had my own flat and didn't have 2 pennies to rub together!!  I decided that it was time to buck my ideas up and give my employers a bit back.  I put the extra hours in, and I have been rewarded for it!

 

Before you think I work in sales - don't.  I work for the public sector.  Because the public sector appears to attract people who just want a '9 to 5' existance, I have really excelled because I am willing to go the extra mile.  You should do the same and stop whinging.

[kevh_uk]

Wow, this is mental...think everyone is gettin a little bit too involved in my question, all i wanted to know was whether in jobs that you get paid a salary do your hours include your lunch. It's my first job since graduating from uni and i wasn't quite sure.....

Punkychicken i'm not trying to cheat anybody out of money just wasn't sure if my contract of 36 hours a week included my lunch.....don't dare tell me i'm not going to last through my probationary period, i'm a damn hard worker and always have been in every job i've ever had, i've got a 2.1 in Biology and am just trying to get on the career ladder at only 21, don't assume i'm some little scally trying to get as much money for as little work as possible!

And sproutstick i think you need to get off your high horse a little bit mate, as i mention i've got a good degree and have recently moved to london from up north where i can tell you that everything is considerably more expensive, my wage is horribly lower than i would like to be earning but isn't everyone's?  Don't dare call me greedy for wanting a little more money that i know i deserve! Good luck with your job hunt for that dream 42k p.a. job, you may not have a degree but at least you have your sparkling and endearing personality, eh?