To think the nursery are wildly unreasonable?

If it is dangerous, insurance would want them to close and if they paid for BI insurance they would get the cost covered. If it is not dangerous, they are taking the piss. If the owners tried to save £1k/year by not getting BI insurance, then demand that anyone but them suck up the lost earnings as a result of that decision, they are taking the piss.

Fully agree. If the staff lose out, that is the fault of the greedy, money-grabbing owners. It is not the OP's responsibility to pay the nursery workers' wages, and anyone who suggests so is utterly ignorant.

Many people can barely afford child care, for many the work at a loss to afford it so they can carry on their career.

So say £120 is that nursery workers daily pay (insane when say its a small nursery of 10 children to say 3 staff they aren't getting paid 400 a day that £2k for 5 days work so its not the poor staffs salary) but OP has now had to pay TWICE.

OP pays her wage to someone else for a service so she can work, so now OP hasn't been paid for her work as £240 has gone to the nursery (who aren't working) even though she ACTUALLY worked for that money.

Why should OP lose that money, OP deserves to be paid too. Paying the staff is NOT her job its the bosses but shes left DOUBLY out of pocket. That is taking from HER paycheck leaving her unpaid.

They will have insurance, and of course insurance covers 'acts of God' otherwise no one would be covered for fire by lightning strike or floods. But insurance will only cover them if they had to close. For example a tree fell over blocking access to the road. A window smashed and it was too cold to open. The basement where the car park is located, flooded. Not if they just closed as a precautionary measure. 3 days closure does sound like they were taking the piss to be honest, London wasn't the worst affected area. No doubt there will be something in their terms and conditions about closing for weather conditions (usually aimed at snow days)

It is classed as an act of god for insurance purposes
And those of a religious bent believe the bearded bloke invented everything, so yes, weather is down to him (they/them for the pronoun police)

Yeh, that makes sense.

We get a small discount for being full time. I think non full time goes up to nearly £100 per day.

To be fair, that sounds quite cheap to me for London, even if it is Zone 6. I'm in the South East, but well outside London, and ours was £80 a few years ago.

They would just spread it across the other hours.

Have you checked your contract for unexpected closure?

What are other local nurseries like, cost wise. Mine is £229 per week 50 hours.

People are assuming people got paid.....zero hour contracts exist.

£120 a day? That's crazy.

It's a piss take, for sure. But they have us by the short and curlys, so not much to be done, I suspect. Your nursery is very expensive, though; we're zone 6 (south london) and pay c.£90 a day.

Why do people say things like, "I bet your children have an interesting vocabulary" on threads like this - as if an OP venting on an anonymous forum communicates in precisely the same way as they do here with their kids 🤦🏼‍♀️🤣

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£120 is an absolute fortune. I thought mine was expensive at £85. I'm also 1 hour out of London. I would be majorly pissed if I were you. I would ask about a refund or credit off next bill. What have you got to lose? Some nurseries are struggling for money, others make an absolute killing. Don't presume they'd all go bankrupt without 3 days of payments.

Oh do eff off you uppity moo.

Also... you have to pay for bank holidays?! We never did in any of my sons' four nurseries! Madness! Some nursery owners really do take the cake don't they!

Yep - exactly what I mean when I say exploiting desperate parents.l who feel they have no choice to pay despite not receiving a service. Disgusting!

Exactly. To be honest, the only nurseries my boys have ever been to (and we've moved around a bit, so 4 in total) have ALL had owners much much wealthier than me! If the staff aren't being paid if the nursery has to close due to bad weather, that's the responsibility of the owner to sort out, not charge the customer for something they aren't receiving. Oh, and those who are trying to emotionally blackmail the OP saying 'pay unless she wants the nursery to close', that's shameful. I actually know of a local nursery that DID close- but not because they couldn't turn a profit... because the profit wasn't ENOUGH to make it worth the wealthy nursery owner's while - despite the annual profit being more than six times what I earn in a year (and I'm on an excellent salary). A lot of the time it is about greed. I'm not saying that is always the case- and there are some who are genuinely struggling- but for goodness sake, stop perpetuating the 'poor nursery owner' narrative... make no mistake that LOTS of them are totally loaded and looking to exploit the desperate customer.

@surreygirl1987 well no mine hasn't ever closed down in fairness, so i wouldn't know. I meant it's just feels like it's a set monthly fee and that's that. It's not cheaper in December when there are bank hols etc

I obviously don't think any other business gets away with charging for a service they are not providing, but in my experience nurseries always do.

I think the reason they get away with it is because (in my area at least) you're lucky to get a place and you feel you've got to hold onto it for dear life

Well... no that's not the same at all. If a gym closed they would refund its customers. At least mine does! It's only had to close once (some fire safety issue) but it refunded us all pro rata... as it should, as it wasn't providing the setvice we were paying for. Does yours charge even when it's closed down?!

When I was a childminder I charged for child's holidays/sickness as the place was available. I didn't charge for my holidays/sickness as I wasn't providing a service.

Recently my son's childcare closed for a week they didn't charge anyone

We had a situation recently where our nursery had to close for two days due to power cuts in the area, I wasn't really expecting a refund but they did give us one by taking it off the following months bill, might be a different situation for weather though I'm not sure, it certainly is a lot of money to lose though.

I came to say this...nursery ends up being more like a membership....have to pay the monthly fee or you can't get in...like a gym 12 month contract, you're stuck paying it even if you fall off the wagon. It's just the worst, but in my experience it's so hard getting a place anywhere that you feel at the mercy of the nursery anyway, and stuck paying full price on their 'training days' and nursing the child at home on half your paying days from the germs they pick up at the settings depressing to think about.

I know when mine were at nursery there defo wouldn't have been a refund for any unexpected closure...it was like it or lump it.