Just as the title says. Supply agency led people to believe they would work 8:30-3:30 at the beginning of the year.

Time ticks along, all fine, then a month in the school declares to this agency's supply workers that they "must" attend in-school training fortnightly and sometimes adhoc, training lasting 1 to 1.5 hrs.

Puzzled supply workers contact agency and they are told that indeed the supply people have to attend those training unpaid, but that training is "good for them".

Problems are that: 1. These training sessions sometimes start late and that means that supply leave the school premises at 5pm. For someone contracted on minimum wage, these hours add up and are inconvenient because of other life arrangements.

  1. Had this info been given at the beginning of the year, the worker could have chosen to commit, or not, to these expectations. Instead, they were led to falsely believe that working hours finish at 3:30. This is very clear as it had never been questioned on the signing out sheets.

  2. CPD is great, but no certificate or proof of it. Apart from this, supply attending CPD and "improving" their skills do not have a job spec and performance reviews where their measured performance can be set against a pay scale, promotion etc.

  3. The agency's contract is ofcourse vague, but they have a few clear points, which they've broken:

  4. that the agency is responsible to clarify hours within 3-8 days since the supply joined them.

  5. that where the school doesn't pay the supply, the agency must pay the supply for the worked extra hours.

  6. No possibility of adding overtime on electronic timesheets.

  7. Agency never replies to periodic emails regarding this issue.

Ofcourse, this is a marriage between an exploitative agency with a school that demands, ofcourse, I suppose, th3 best commitment.

However, supply are feeling put down when school is reproaching them for not attending, and demands that they put "the school" first. A few more anxious souls than me chose to quit after great angst, because of stress and mismatched expectations.

However, I think this is very unfair.

Is this happening everywhere?