Work Problems

LegacyUser

Posting this on behalf of someone else and will try to give only as much detail as necessary, as to keep their anonymity.

The more this person tells me about their job, the more shocked I am about it.

To give some background; this person works in an area involving children and has been there for almost three years now. In their work, there is a junior level and senior level. From what I've gathered, you can only become a senior if you have a qualification, which they don't. Seemingly their managers were told by those higher-up that they need to have a certain amount of seniors; this person is a junior. As a result, both their assistant manager and manager kept pestering them about doing a course, so that they can be promoted to senior level. This will give them a somewhat pay increase, but give their workplace another senior level, which is what they wanted. However, this person is being made pay for this course out of their own pocket; the whole thing costing almost €1,000. They were told that they would be made a senior (and receive a minor pay increase) only once it is completed, which won't be for another year or so. They are due to do it in their own time outside of work.

In recent times, they have been asked to do work that usually is only left to seniors - they have to carry out various audits, train staff/temps, look after other staff members and so on and so forth. They feel like they deserve to be reimbursed for this to a certain extent, which I somewhat agree with. To this end, they asked their manager for the email address of a higher-up manager, yet refused this, but said to send the email on and they'll forward it up. However, this manager stated that they would need to read over it. So they wrote it out, sent it to the manager, only to be told that they need to re-write it.

Effectively, this person stated how good a staff member they are and so on and so forth, but also included how they were asked to pay for the course out of their own pocket, which is the truth - they were asked and pestered about it pretty much on an everyday basis. The manager told them to instead say that they "encouraged them to do this course".

There's some other issues like the staff members having to attend meetings unpaid, pay for first aid courses out of their own pockets, and other areas.

So the questions I would like to ask are -
1: Is this person entitled to ask for a pay increase before the course is complete?
2: Can their manager refuse to give contact details of those above them?
3: Can they refuse to send on the email?
4: Can their job not pay for meetings and also force them to pay for first aid courses out of their own pocket?

Nody

What Can They Do? wrote: »

So the questions I would like to ask are -
1: Is this person entitled to ask for a pay increase before the course is complete?

They can always ask but the answer will almost guaranteed be no as they have not earned it (they could fail/drop out etc.).

2: Can their manager refuse to give contact details of those above them?

Yes; there's no legal requirement to give out such details.

3: Can they refuse to send on the email?

Of course; there's no legal requirement to forward e-mails.

4: Can their job not pay for meetings and also force them to pay for first aid courses out of their own pocket?

Define pay out of their pocket; make them travel to another site? Yes they can if the normal clauses are in the contract. Go to Bali on a training course at their own expense? No they can not. Anything in between will be more contract dependent.

Mrs OBumble

What Can They Do? wrote: »

4: Can their job not pay for meetings and also force them to pay for first aid courses out of their own pocket?

Not paying for meetings is not on: if the meeting is work, then they should be paid.

A non-qualified person being asked to to duties of a qualified person is also not really on: if they're doing it as a "development experience", then it should be supervised by a qualified person.

But paying for generic industry training yourself is totally normal: if you're a nurse-aide in a hospital, and want to become a nurse, then you pay for your training. Ditto SNA / teacher, dental-nurse / dentist, legal-secretary / lawyer, etc.


I'm betting that you are referring to someone working in early-childhood education (sometimes called "childcare" in this country). Slowly but surely the sector is becoming more qualified. And it's a good thing too. Sooner or later your unqualified friend will not be allowed to work in the sector at all, so it really is in his/her best interests to get qualified.