I am/was a part-time university lecturer. I took on a module last minute in February to fill in for a colleague who had to leave with sickness. I was told I would give the remaining lectures which consisted of approximately 50% of the term. The way it works is we are paid hourly at quite a high rate on the understanding that later in the term, when students hand in their work, we will do all of the marking at no extra pay. Essentially, we get an advance.
My first issue with this employer came when the school head assured me that because I had done half of the teaching, I would only do half of the marking. When I mentioned this to the module lead, he had no idea. I negotiated with my school head and forwarded the email which said I would only have to do 50%. In the end, they sent me extra pay to do all of the marking. I wasn't particularly happy with this as it's extremely time consuming and I didn't sign up to that much work.
Fast forward to now, I am working full time at a new company. Because of my previous agreements, I am now juggling full time work in the day with endless marking on an evening.
To reward myself for a lot of hard work and to celebrate my new salary, I booked myself my dream trip which starts next week. I have waited years for a break. Previously, I've taken my laptop to work and done things like my PhD work by the pool in Spain. I ended up coming home more stressed than when i had started. I emailed the school head to say that I will be honouring our previous agreement to complete the marking and these will be returned within the 2 week window but I would be out of the country after this week and unable to mark any work which might be granted extensions to that point. He once again assured me that would not happen, and once again the module lead has granted extensions to 5 students within that window. They are telling me these will need to be completed and returned while I am away. This means taking my laptop across the world with me and having to sit in my hotel and complete about 5 hours work mid-vacation.
To clarify, my annual leave is with my new employer, and although I am no longer working for the university, the module lead has suggested that it is part of my original contract to stay available for marking until end of term. Are they suggesting I get paid in March and have to remain available u til July in case they need me to mark papers?