Aussie Childcare Network Forum

Hi everyone,

Im kinda new here in Aussie Childcare Network and I'm not sure if I'm in the right forum to ask this question but here i go.

I work in child care for a big company which is not only has child care but as well other services as well, but we have here a few child cares here but mostly everything is located up in the Brisbane.

Now my question is sometimes we have staff meeting and sometimes we have training at work and we get paid for those ours after work which is after 6:00, but my question is if they ask us to go to a conference that are related to work or events and its on a weekend (usually Saturday) , are we by law have to go to this conferences even though we don't get paid for it at all and waste our whole day from 8:00 am till like 5:00 pm and still have to either drive ourselves all the way to Brisbane or train( which is expensive) and we don't get paid for it and until we get home it takes usually hour - hour and half drive.
Can we say no thats my question and can we ask to get paid for it. I have been working for this company for a while and Im a permanent full time worker.


Thank You

Hi Lorina

Thank you for your reply back, well the thing is that last time we had a confrence in Brisbane I didn’t go because I feel like it’s a whole day thing which is a long day and im sure you would agree with me that if you would work full time you won’t wanna go in your weekend to a confrence a whole day, it’s just long and you don’t wanna waste your own weekend and working full time it’s hard, we all deserve a rest ( thank goodness for weekends ... I’m the confrence we get food and drink for free there which is part of the conference and I guess they bring guest speakers so they pay lots of money for people to come from all over the company service. But beside travel ( 2 years ago) we car pooled with same of the ladies who work with me and also we had to pay for parking as well , so I guess it’s a place that they do the conference but car park is not included. So I guess I’m not sure about how it works, it’s not fair for us we waste our time on weekends and we as well don’t get compensated for it... don’t think it’s fair!

Thank you

Lorina wrote: ↑

Tue Nov 28, 2017 3:08 pm

Hi!

Welcome to the Forum!

During my time working in the industry, there have only been a couple of times where I had to go to work on a weekend. One was actually an excursion, however, thought it would be easier to do it on the weekend and have each parent come and participate along with their child... Anyway... with these conferences and events besides travel is there anything else you have to pay for?

From my understanding, if it is work related and it is outside your ordinary hours of work then you should get compensated for it.

,
Lorina

Hi ,

Thanks for your help, yeah that would be awesome, hope you hear from them soon...


Thanks again

Lorina wrote: ↑

Tue Nov 28, 2017 3:09 pm

FYI - I'm going to contact FairWork Australia to see what they say about this issue...

I'll let you know what they say once I hear back from them...

,
Lorina

I just received a reply for FWA and this is what they said:

Thanks for your enquiry. It is the view of the FWO that if you are required to attend a work event or conference that this is classified as hours worked and should be paid accordingly. If you are not going to be paid to attend an event, you should not be required to go. This includes days set aside for training and professional development - if these are required to do your job, you should be paid for the time it takes to undertake the training.

Hope this helps!

,
Lorina