Bosses making me report early for work without pay

Hi all, recently I’ve been taking up part time jobs. Aside from the extremely toxic work environment (FNB, the infamous banquet), I’m pretty appalled by how recruiters/bosses are making me report early for work without pay.

The first instance I had was with a recruitment agency. I signed up for a slot that started at 10am. I thought the start time was reasonable because I stayed pretty far from the hotel (was a banquet job).

Then when it was nearing the date, they texted me to report at 9.15am. Of course, I was like how is this possible! I signed up for a job that starts at 10, I’ll reach at…10?

I was pretty mad so I decided to ask her why it starts at 9.15 when its stated to start at 10am. She said she’s afraid that I’ll be late.

Well, I was like ok… I couldnt cancel that job offer as well because i’ll be subjected to a penalty. The penalty was a deduction of pay and since i worked for the company previously and my pay was not in, i was afraid it would jeopardise that pay. I vowed to never go back.

Today, I had a friend introduce me a job. It states to report 30mins before the event starts. I asked if i was paid and he said maybe not.

It seems to me like people generally dont really take it seriously about part timers getting paid fairly? This time i do wanna put my foot down on this and reject this offer.

Personally, I feel like i should be paid for whatever time they told me to work. Or am i just missing out on something. I dont know man, cause my parents also told me that its fine, its just 30 mins.

Honestly felt it was a bummer because i loved doing part time, i dont need money because my hourly pay is $70 for my own job and part time is just something i wanna experience given im only 20.

I really hope i dont sound so dramatic given its really just less than an hour early but i truly felt unfair. What do you think?