To find nurseries charging on bank holidays unfair?

It is illegal,I know that,she says it’s because I work part time but I work 5 days a week therefore I’m entitled to 5.6 weeks,the way my manger works out holidays entitlement it would take me 7 months to accrue 1 weeks holiday!

What’s fair is that all customers have the opportunity to read and agree to the t&c’s of this business before they decide to send their there on particular days.

I assume this happened and @Revoltingpheasants and he dp decided to go ahead rather than look at other options for childcare / work .

Surely OP’s issue is that she is disproportionately affected by the days she uses. It would be fair to split the pain across all parents ( but unfair to those who have intentionally worked around Mondays 🤷🏼‍♀️ )

But I am not the employer, I am a service user.

That's the difference. I get paid by my employer because they pay me for bank holidays (they could also require me to work and give me time off at another time - which childcare providers could also do if they wanted to).

But when I pay for a nursery I am paying for a service. And you don't* pay for services you don't get.

*shouldn't have to

Is this poster part time? If not then what they describe is illegal.

You haven't answered my point, OP.

If these days came out of your statutory holiday then you WERE being paid for them!

It is annoying and they should not be charging you when they are closed. They should charge enough for the days when they are open, to allow them not to charge for a service they are not providing on bank holidays. As you say, you're paying full price for half provision over Easter. Over a year you're losing 5 days care, more if Christmas etc falls on a Monday or Friday (and if it falls on a weekend there is a Monday BH in lieu as well)
A childminder who charges by the hour might be better.

If you aren't being paid for holiday, i.e. you are receiving fewer than 5.6 weeks total paid leave in the year, I'm fairly sure that that is illegal. How do they justify it?

But you are literally getting paid to not work on the Bank Holiday Monday and Friday, right? So isn't it fair that some of your wage for day off on Easter Monday will pay for the nursery staff who also cannot work on Easter Monday?

Either everyone gets paid for Bank Holidays or no one does (self-employment excepted). In this case, everyone does, so it's perfectly fair.

Those people who work Tuesdays and Thursdays aren't getting a free day off on Easter Monday like you are.

I agree, it’s really frustrating. A bit of sensible budgeting and planning on the nursery’s part would mean that the cost of those days could be factored into everyone’s bill over the course of the year, rather than Monday parents solely footing the bill. It’s common in other industries for these extra costs to be incorporated into the overall picture.

e.g. we all pay the same £ for an item of clothing from the same shop regardless of needing size 8 or size 18
We all pay the same amount for a stamp to post a letter whether it’s going 5miles or 300.
We all pay £9.90 for ‘a prescription’ whether it contains 10 pills or 30.
It should be the same principle of needing nursery on a Monday or a Tuesday.

It’s particularly unfair when people have pay for alternative childcare/plead with family to help etc just because they’re a nurse/prison officer etc and have to work the bank hol.

I agree too. Especially for a private setting when they could open - pay your team time and a half like most (retail / hospitality) sectors and give the parents the option to then either pay normal rate if they don’t send their kid in because they have the time off themselves or pay the time and a half rate for those who would benefit from the childcare - I’m sure most parents who do work would opt in to that arrangement. Childcare sucks in this day and age, even schools need to rethink how they open to meet the changing landscape of parents work patterns changing in society and grandparents now retiring later and later but that’s a rant probably for another thread.

Some really weird comments on this. If your child goes on a Mon and Fri and your nursery closes for bank holidays but expects payment, then you pay the same fee as everyone else but get less for it. It’s as simple as that. If they aren’t able to offer parity for children who attend on a Monday/Friday then that’s just a poor setup. OP will be several days of childcare down a year v someone who has paid the same fee for a Tuesday/Wednesday. It’s a stupid way to operate but has been weirdly normalised in childcare when no one would accept it anywhere else!

It is - they work out their costs, divide by number of days they have (days x children places) and that’s how much they charge. Because your day is nominally a Monday makes no difference.

It is a bit illogical. People who work four day weeks and the like get their holidays pro rataed to make things fair. So a person who has Mondays off works the same days in a year as one who takes Wednesdays off. But it doesn't work like that for nursery. I guess the maths would get complicated as people change days around.

I just see it as a day off op - like you’re off already so what does it matter that your kid isn’t at nursery

the cost is per month not an hourly or day rate 🤷‍♀️ I pay for 4 days and have Tuesday off - it’s annoying but I’m off work bank holidays and I’m not down any money that month I earn the same so It doesn’t make a difference to my income that month

xmas and Easter is annoying as I have to book annual leave to cover it - or rope parents in ! But again I’m not down any money and I just suck it up and pay

if the policy changed then the fees will Just go up regardless - and your bill would likely still just be as much as you pay now

This is why my child doesn’t do nursery on Mondays. They still have to pay their staff

I think it's time the CMA looked into it. I agree with you.

I agree OP, you don't get the service, so why should you pay for those days?

But childcare seems to operate completely differently from the rest of the world.

I had it with the childminder too as my son used to go after school on Mondays and Fridays so it was disproportionately bank holidays. Although if she was off herself eg August bank holiday week, she wouldn't charge for the bank holiday.

You’ve had some totally absurd replies from people who seem unable to grasp the point you are making about the nurseries charging structure which is patently unfair. You obviously should just ignore these and take comfort from the people who understand your point and sympathise. However if you go on mumsnet you are always going to get a fair few of this type of reply. Good luck OP.