Job Centre Form for recently departed nanny

[frazmum]

On Friday last week I had to ask my nanny to leave as she had not come to work for two days and couldn't tell me when she'd be back. The reason was because her car was in an accident and couldn't be driven. However she would not consider getting to work any other way (and for starters, she could have got the train).

The Job Centre form asks if she left voluntarily or was dismissed. If I say yes then she won't get Allowance for 26 weeks.

The issue is clouded as she had the accident whilst driving my DC's to school (minor accident, no-one hurt). We gave her the rest of the day off and asked her to call that night about what she was doing. Said she couldn't come next day so we said ok reluctantly, but then she said no to Friday and didn't know when she'd be back.

My dilema is if I put on form she was dismissed then are we opening ourselves up for her to file a personal grievance claim against us? Any ideas what to do?

[flowerybeanbag]

The claim would be for unfair dismissal and either she has a claim or she doesn't - that won't change because of what you tick on her form.

Seems pretty drastic to sack her for not coming in on the Friday though tbh. Is there more to it? How long has she been with you? If it's more than a year she may well have a claim as it sounds unlikely you used a reasonable procedure and unlikely her not coming into work for a couple of days could be considered gross misconduct which it would have to be in order to sack someone without prior warnings.

[nannynick]

Does not sound as though you ended the contract correctly, such as through discipilinary procedure.

Have you paid in lieu of notice?
What are you doing for childcare now... if not now using a nanny then maybe you made her redundant?

[tefal]

I agree. You can't really just tell her she's fired. I think you should have followed correct disciplinary procedures.

You say it was a minor accident and no one was hurt. Has she been seen medically. Could she have hurt herself with something like whiplash?

[nannynick]

As a nanny, when my car has been out of action (not an accident luckily, was a delay in garage service) I have hired a car so I could still do my job.
So while it does sound as though your nanny has not made much effort to get to work, thus an inconvenience to you... given the circumstances not sure why the days off could not have been done as sick, compasionate leave, annual leave. Sacking seems drastic - suspect there are other issues involved.

I feel you need to decide if you sacked under Gross Misconduct, or if you terminated the contract and pay in lieu of notice, which may be redundancy if you now don't need a nanny.

What other options are there on the job center form?

[frazmum]

Difficulty we had was that she wasn't prepared to find another way to get to work and would not tell us when she'd be back. She left us with no childcare and I've had to work reduced hours this week with reduced pay (and a boss not very happy).

She had only been working for us for 6 weeks. We realise it wasn't the fairest, but I only work on contract and as such can be dismissed if I don't turn up to work for my full hours. So while work have been ok this week it has been made very clear it is not to continue into next week.

What are you supposed to do when someone stops coming to work and won't tell you when they will?

[frazmum]

She wasn't hurt and I checked again each time I spoke to her. Obviously if she was then it is a completely different matter. No she just couldn't be bothered finding another way to get to work.

[annh]

I don't know anything about the law surrounding this but I would say that you are on very dodgy ground in the way in which you have dismissed her. I mean, she might have had the flu and not been able to tell you exactly when she would come back to work. Would have dismissed her in those circumstances?

[defyingravity]

I would say that you dismissed her for failure to turn up to work. She was not off sick, it was her car that was the issue. if she was sick then she should have said so and filled in a self cert.

My company has dismissed people for failure to turn up to work, we did go through the proper procedure but this was someone who ahd been there for several years and also done it before (they used to go on drunken benders and disappear for several weeks). As she has only worked for you for 6 weeks she has no redress unless it could be seen to be sex discrimination.

[frazmum]

annh - she wasn't sick, it was just because she wouldn't use public transport to get to work. Funnily - on the days she didn't turn up I got the train that she would have got, but in the opposite direction, getting off 2 stops earlier.

Have had a nanny a few years ago who was off for quite a while sick and she was certainly kept on, paid and I paid extra for a temp to cover. And I didn't know when she would be back.

So I'm not being harsh because someone has a problem - but because someone couldn't be bothered coming to work.

[DancingHippoOnAcid]

I would say refusing to come to work with no good reason and refusing to say when she will be back count as gross misconduct. And anyway having worked for you for only 6 weeks she cannot claim for unfair dismissal.

So just fill in the form saying she was dismissed. Not redundancy as I presume you are taking on someone else.

[frazmum]

Thanks for your thoughts. Thankfully employed someone else today, but has been a hellish week trying to juggle it all, as I'm sure a lot of you are aware.

[Cammelia]

Always better to be truthful on official forms for your own sake.
Re the car accident, were you perhaps angry at her, was the accident her fault, etc?

[frazmum]

No I wasn't angry at her re the accident, it wasn't her fault and really just wanted her back at work.