Should I seek overtime pay?

[rjpatt]

I work in a public school, through EPIK. I have a rotating schedule where I teach 5th grade one week and 6th the next. There are 11 5th grade classes and 10 6th grade classes. I teach each class twice a week. To "fill in the extra time" I have a teacher's class once a week. This means that I teach 23 classes on 5th grade weeks and 21 classes on 6th grade weeks (normal weeks anyway - which seem to be rare). So I was wondering if anybody out there had a suggestion on whether I should try to get overtime or not.

I feel like, on the one hand, the weeks kind of average out to 22 hours. But on the other hand I'm technically working overtime every other week. I don't want to be obnoxious about it at school... but then again I can always use extra money  :D.

[lotte world]

Your contract says '22 hours per week' in which case you should be paid extra if you teach more than 22 hours in any given week.  However, if you aren't teaching 22 hours some weeks, or many weeks, it's up to you how you want to approach this.  Probably you should have made it clear that you should be paid extra on the occasions when you do teach more than 22 hours before you started teaching.  It may be too late now.

Choose your battles...

[cmster]

I'd just leave it be. Seems fair enough that it averages 22 hours. Maybe they just couldn't fit a certain class in your regular schedule. If you asked for overtime, it's possible they might just move a class to the 21 hour week. If it's not too much for you, and depending on your school, sometimes it's best to do little favours here and there and not be too by the letter (as long as you aren't being taken advantage of). It really seems to find it's way back to you.

[Marie Brown]

It evens out, and if your school is anything like mine, you miss plenty of classes anyway.  I guess you could ask for OT and get an extra forty thousand a month or whatever it is, but it seems awfully petty.

[rjpatt]

Thanks for the advice, all. I wasn't even considering it until some of my friends suggested it and it makes sense,  but seems really silly. This is only the third week of the teacher class - started with 5, down to 4, who knows how long it'll last... but the one extra class isn't even a small inconvenience so I'll just pretend I have 22 every week.

[taeyang]

i feel like it isn't worth it to fight about it...

if you're only doing one grade a week, then you're really only planning two lesson plans a week, right?

and trust us, that teacher's class probably won't last!  :D

[firebreaker]

You should be getting the OT pay. If your contract says 22 hours a week is full time and you teach 23 hours for 2 weeks, then you should get paid for the extra hours. I would definitely mention it to them. "It evens out." is not correct. You should be paid for the OT.  The trick is how you approach it.

If you approach them in the right way, then you'll get the back pay. Just don't be a jerk about it.  I agree the teacher's class will probably disappear soon, but you still should be paid the extra. Even if it's only 2 hours a month.

If you let them get away with something, then they will try to go further.

I personally would approach them with a comment similar to "I am wondering when I will be paid for my overtime. Do you know?"  If they came at me with the "It evens out." Then I would say something like, "I'm pretty sure I'm supposed to get OT pay for anything over 22 hours in one week, but I'm not totally sure. I'll double check my contract and let you know. Thanks a lot for your help."

Then, a couple days later, I'd bring my contract up and show the clause to them.

It's your decision though. Just telling you what I would do.