To think it’s actually really unfair to be charged for bank holidays at nursery?

This pissed me off so much when we had kids in nursery, especially if not full time as those on MT&W lost much more to BHs than say a TW&T booking. Yes, they should be paid, no you should not be billed when no service is available, even if you pay a tiny bit more a day to cover it, this is not reasonable.

Change your working days if you don’t like it. “They should pay from their profits” is an absurd statement. Everyone knows that nurseries are on their knees and barely make a profit.

Are you aware of the nursery funding crisis?

No, they don't have to, they could take it out of profits.

You pay for all the staff's holidays, 5.6 weeks a year, not just the bank holidays. It's part of your fees. Why get upset about the bank holidays only?

Small business owners raking it in from nurseries are immoral creeps.

Ditto small business owners raking it in from elder care.

The classic answer to this has come up numerous times already - ‘I assume you are paid for bank holidays?’ No, actually im
not. I’m self employed and no work = no pay. so can I not pay the nursery or at least have the right to moan about it?

One of the things I do is run a club for children, including on a Monday. On the May bank holiday I couldn’t run it cos the school I run it in was closed. So, I didn’t charge the parents for that week. I can’t imagine many of them would have been happy to pay for it if I had tried to do that! Does everyone pay out for their kids football/ballet/gymnastics or whatever when it falls on a bank holiday? Or do you find that the activity provider doesn’t bill
you for that week?

It used to make me a bit ragey when DC were in child care. But it's just the payment system makes it obvious because they charge per day. I'm in Aus, where it's similar, and here there's a charging cap so they can't raise rates across the year to cover public holidays, so charge for them instead.

By contrast, DS is now in a private high school & we pay per term, not day, so paying for public holidays aren't even a thought. The annoyance here is that private schools get more school holidays which primary parents have to often pay to cover extra child care.

We get paid on bank holidays but it comes out of the company's profits. It has to because we can't/don't charge any work to clients that day. So it doesn't have to be a choice between paying your staff or charging customers. I'm not sure why so many people seem to see private nurseries effectively as charities!

Just to clarify, nurseries are not "struggling businesses". They may pay their workers a low wage considering the importance of their job, but I have two separate friends who are both in the process of buying nursery number 2 and 3 because it's so profitable.
( And it's a struggle to meet up with them because they are always on holiday!)

Agreed. Like many other businesses, we have to pay our staff for bank holidays, but obviously this is just a coat of doing business. Not sure why it has become the norm for customers to cover that cost!

But it is.

It is a national holiday and the staff still has to be paid for that day off. Just like you do in your job.

And mine have both gone Mondays and Fridays so would have been pretty rubbish otherwise.

Ours doesn’t close on bank holidays. It’s great! It’s closed two weeks at Christmas and that’s it.

If you work part time avoid Mondays. Not just for this reason but because it also means your holiday gets swallowed up by them. If you avoid Mondays you get to choose a different day for your holiday.

My youngest attends nursery on Mondays and we are not invoiced for bank holidays when they are shut. Daily fees are an eye-watering £95 though (London) so I assume they have factored in bank holidays to that in order to spread the cost amongst all parents. I think that's fair.

It is outrageous that you are charged for a service when it is closed. Lots of people slating your viewpoint and then in the same breath conceding that they have opted out of Mondays to avoid paying it themselves! How many people would be happy to pay their cleaner/builder/tutor for not attending on a bank holiday? You do not employ the nursery staff directly so if their employer wants to give them the day off, this needs to come out of a central fund and be budgeted for in a way that does not adversely affect a small proportion of clients.

That's your bad planning, I changed my working days to send my kids Tues,Weds and Thurs so I didn't have to pay for bank holidays. Most people I know avoid sending their kids both Mondays and Fridays

I didn’t even know that was a thing - that is ridiculous. You pay for a service, you’re not receiving that service so why should you have to pay. You’re not an employer, it’s not your company so why should the costs fall on you.

I feel for the people who have to work bank holidays and find alternative childcare - ultimately paying twice.

Unfortunately the government now control 3/4s of the childcare businesses and have say over the remaining 1/4 if you can think of any other private businesses who have the charges and terms and conditions dictated by government id like to know which industry it is.

I hate this too, the minute I went on Maternity leave I changed my DS's Monday to a Tuesday

But if they had a day off unpaid, it wouldn’t be a bank holiday for them. The whole point of bank holidays is that they are an extra paid day off. Therefore service users such as yourself have to cover this. YABU.

You’ll get a lot of heat for this post. (I did when I made a similar point!). I felt the same as you. I find it bizarre to be charged when they are closed. The same I always felt there should have been a little flexibility on holidays/sickness.like a certain amount of days a year. Also my nursery would choose to close after lunch just before Christmas but still charge for a full day. I’m self employed and a single mum with no other childcare and so end up losing a days work AND pay for nursery when they are closed so it’s a double whammy. they have us over a barrel!!
My daughter is at a pre-school now and doesn’t go on a Monday!