Instructor pay & national minimum wage
I work for a large flight training organisation in east Scotland.. .This company is subject to an investigation by the low pay regulatory authorities. This authority has been monitoring pay against hours worked by instructors.
For the past year we have had to record all instructors working hours these are to be checked by the low pay authority & compared against pay received.. .Now however, my employers have re-defined the meaning of the word work & to cut a long story short we have now been told to only record . .Actual time spent with a customer,i.e. flight time & briefing time,. .Checking students navigation plogs. .Filling in logbook & timesheet. .Fueling aircraft etc.
Therefore if I spend 8 hours at work but only fly one hour, the low pay authority is under the impresion that I have only worked 1 hour & know nothing of the other seven hours that I have actually been at work.
I realise that the profit margins are quite tight in flying schools but the national minimun wage was set up to ensure that low paid employees are not exploited.
I do not expect to be well paid as a flying instructor, but after having spent £30,000 to become a professional pilot, it would be nice to earn at least as much as a toilet attendent.
No instructor should have to work for less than £4.10 per hour.