Tutor Dispute

June 14, 2018 7:52 AM

The agency I joined reneged on an agreement and I am not sure what to do.

Around 6 weeks ago I joined an agency to undertake SEN tutoring for a boy who does not attend high school due to anxiety, ASD and ADHD.. The agency told me that the pupil has been allocated 10 hours of tutoring funding which would be spread over 2 days - 5 hours per day. They told me that even if I was only able to get 3 hours work from the pupil during a session, that I would be paid for 5 hours, as the hours include planning and preparation. The pupil has not attended school for 3 years and not received any form of tutoring since last May. The pupil and his parent have more or less dictated how many hours they want me to do and I have been slowly trying to increase the time I spend with him. So far, he is able to do around 2 to 2 and a half hours in one session, so 5 hours per week. I have not been paid as per agreed at the beginning. I have only been paid for the time I spend tutoring the pupil. I have made myself available for this pupil for two full days per week when I could have the potential to obtain full days of work elsewhere as a supply teacher. I notified the parents that I wasn’t sure how long I would be able to continue with the tutoring because of the reasons above. They completely understood but asked if I would give them some notice if/when I intended to finish. I approached my agency about the hours of pay and said that when I joined I understood that it would be for 5 hours of work per day and that I think I should be at least paid for 3 hours as I am making myself available for the morning at least and also I am planning for the equivalent of a full day, plus providing my own equipment/resources etc. They then said they weren’t sure at the beginning how many hours the pupil would be able to do (they didn’t tell me this) and would not agree to paying me for 3 hours per day. They also said it was unprofessional to speak to the parents about this before them and more or less didn’t give me any choice but to leave as of now. I have therefore not given the parents any notice. I feel that I should contact the parents directly but am not sure what to say.

posted by charlen to Work & Money (7 answers total)

If you've got something in writing guaranteeing you pay for 5 hours per day then you could invoice the agency for this and take it to small claims court if they don't pay. If it was just verbal then they'll probably say that was just expected earnings that sadly didn't materialise.

If you were only put in contact with the parents by the agency and you won't be working for the agency again then I don't think you should have any further contact with the parents. Given you've already told them your concerns over hours then I'm sure they will understand the reasons for you discontinuing.
posted by JonB at 8:02 AM on June 14, 2018

"I regret to inform you that I will be leaving $tutoringcompany as of $date. I apologize for any difficulty caused by the short notice, but citcumstances beyond my control have forced me to leave sooner than I had initially anticipated. My last day with $pupil will be $lastdate. For any questions, please contact $mymanager at $contactinfo. I wish you and $pupil only the best and hope that the coming transition goes as smoothly for you as it can, under the circumstances. Thank you for your understanding. Regards, charlen."
posted by Anticipation Of A New Lover's Arrival, The at 8:08 AM on June 14, 2018 [9 favorites]

Note that there's a lot of stuff in your question that I'm unclear on, by the way. I'm not sure if you're trying to fight for better payment or find a way to tell the parents that you're resigning. If the former, I don't know how strong your position is—it depends on what's in your contract vs. what's just something you were told. I'm not sure how your employer can give you no choice but to resign—surely if they want to dictate your end date you should make them fire you, otherwise start job hunting and don't resign until you get an offer that you can accept. If they fire you, you should be able to collect unemployment. It's also not clear whether you still work for this company as of right now or not—if not, it is probably inappropriate for you to contact your former client, and you should let your former employer handle things.
posted by Anticipation Of A New Lover's Arrival, The at 8:17 AM on June 14, 2018

I get your frustration... You made yourself available for 5 hours and you're only getting paid for 3. The agency should pay you for 5. It sucks that they are not. However, you absolutely need to have gotten that in writing.

I used to do tutoring for a test prep company. The parents paid the company, had a contract with the company.
I was an employee of the company, not the parents.
This was sometimes confusing to all of the parties involved but in general it protects you. This separation helps a lot because you don't have to interact with the person paying with regard to money. In the future don't discuss such things at all.

Another future lesson - get everything in writing. If they said you'd be paid for 5 hours even if you were only with the tutoree for 3, make sure that this is in email at least and in your contract at best.

In my experience, the prep time is treated in 2 ways... One way is that for every X hours of tutoring, you get Y prep hours and those prep hours are at a lower rate. Another way is that you do not get paid for prep hours but you make a little bit more than average in your tutoring hours to make up for it.

With regard to providing resources, that is also something to work out with the agency.

All in all, send the message Anticipation wrote above. And in the future, get a lot more information about how things are arranged and get things in writing.
posted by k8t at 12:39 PM on June 14, 2018

Response by poster: Thanks all for your responses. My aim when I phoned the agency was to fight for more pay. However, it backfired on me when they told me that if I could get 5 hours pay as a supply teacher then I need to go and do what I need to do. I asked on more than one occasion for more clarity with the hours. I do have an email to say that if I got 3 hours of work out of a pupil in one session I would be paid for 5 hours. Yet, I was doing 2 and a half each day, but they were added together to make 5 in total per week. The parents weren’t paying for the tutoring. They are entitled to 10 hours tutoring per week funded by the government. The agency receive 10 hours of funding regardless of whether or not it is completed by the student.
posted by charlen at 1:07 PM on June 14, 2018

Ugh, this is bullshit. Do you know the government rules regarding this kind of tutoring where you are? Who decided that the student had to get five hours per day when they can't do three hours per day consistently? Why isn't it 2.5 hrs/day 4 days a week or 2hrs/5 days? Because to me it sounds like the agency has set the tutor and pupil up to fail so that they can pocket the extra five hours of funding each week, and I bet they are doing it to almost all the pupils they are contracted for, and I think once you quit you should make a complaint to the government department that funds them so they get audited.
posted by Snarl Furillo at 5:16 PM on June 14, 2018

From your follow-up, it sounds like there is a real possibility that this agency is defrauding a government program by accepting payment for services not rendered (i.e., they should pay you to be available for the full time the student is entitled to regardless of whether the student can currently make full use of the resource). Obviously this depends strongly on the specific laws governing the program, but I agree it is a red flag and it would be an act of good citizenship for you to report it for the funding agency to investigate and make a decision about.
posted by biogeo at 8:40 AM on June 15, 2018 [1 favorite]