Tom147
Member
- Location
- North Suffolk
So about 6 months ago I decided to ask a local sheep farm about my DofE volunteering. thankfully they said yes and I spent my entire Easter holiday doing 12-13 hour days work, this was fair enough as I was gaining experience, meeting new people and earning a fantastic reputation and at that point money wasn't really concerning me as everyone else was doing it out of free will. However after I finished my volunteering I was offered the opportunity to come back to help out at shearing. Again I was really happy they invited me back especially with the notion I may be payed.
However, I started this weekend, doing the usual 12 hours. It is at this point I would like to mention the work I was doing was exactly the same as everyone else apart from the shearers (herding sheep, getting the into groups and separating the lambs, sending them up the race, Rolling and baging wool and stacking it in the shed).I noticed that I was the only person who hadn't been payed, wasn't offered drinks and apart from one other person didn't have breaks.
Now I'm not going to say that my employer is in the wrong, but surely I should to some extent be payed? I'm not being greedy but most of my friends are earning more a week for a two hour paper round on a Friday whilst I do their hours for a month in under a day. So back to the question at hand, is it worth sticking at it for the experience or am I just being used as cheap labour?
However, I started this weekend, doing the usual 12 hours. It is at this point I would like to mention the work I was doing was exactly the same as everyone else apart from the shearers (herding sheep, getting the into groups and separating the lambs, sending them up the race, Rolling and baging wool and stacking it in the shed).I noticed that I was the only person who hadn't been payed, wasn't offered drinks and apart from one other person didn't have breaks.
Now I'm not going to say that my employer is in the wrong, but surely I should to some extent be payed? I'm not being greedy but most of my friends are earning more a week for a two hour paper round on a Friday whilst I do their hours for a month in under a day. So back to the question at hand, is it worth sticking at it for the experience or am I just being used as cheap labour?