| What is term-time working?
If you've got children, this could be a good working option for you. Read on... As the name suggests, term-time working is related to school patterns. Instead of having only four or six weeks of annual holidays, you have an extra seven to nine weeks of unpaid leave. This gives you the chance to work during term-time but to spend the holidays with any school-age children who are too young to be left to their own devices while you are out at work. New regulations give fathers and mothers the right to up to 13 weeks of unpaid leave for any child born or adopted after 15 December 1999. Leave can be taken up until the child’s fifth birthday. But this new legislation isn’t related to term-time working schemes. Not all employers are keen to set up term-time working schemes. They might be reluctant to find cover for the extra eight or so weeks of absence. But, in some jobs, with seasonal peaks and troughs, an employer might actually prefer you to take up a term-time working scheme. Term-time work is not the same as seasonal work, though. Term-time workers have a permanent contract that continues throughout school holidays and during periods of paid and unpaid leave. This means that your employment rights and advantages are the same as for other employees. Before you set up an arrangement, you will need to work out how many weeks of unpaid leave you are going to need (check out the school-term dates before you start as these can vary from area to area). Maybe you will want to organise an alternative for part of the school holidays so that you won’t need to take so much time off work. Decide with your employer how you will be paid. Some people like to have their pay averaged out for the year. If you do this, it will mean that you will get the same amount each week or month, whether you have worked or not. This can be useful for budgeting. The alternative is to be paid as usual for the weeks worked and then not to receive any pay for the weeks you take off. The main disadvantage to term-time working is the obvious one: a drop in pay. But, if you are thinking of asking your employer to let you go on this scheme, bear in mind that time away from work may have consequences that are not so easy to see – it could, for example, affect your chances of promotion. Further information
|