IM A NANNY! HELP!

Clubfrog you deserve to be treated much better than this, i think you should look for another family because the one you work for really dont deserve you. There will be a family out there who do treat you well and respect you. And dont forget if they refuse to pay you min wage you should ring the people at direct gov (the number is on the website) they legally have to and action can be taken by other people to make them x

Sorry to hear it didn't go so well club frog (and nanny nat)- not all employers are like this .

Good luck if you do have your sit down. I had my meeting tonight...a day late but thats ok. ended in the two parents getting into a domestic and him asking me to leave as i said something wrong apparently that made MB mad at him. But She did say the two of us can have a sit down Friday night and discuss everything without him as we will probably have a better time of it.

Just keep documenting everything, and remember that you are worth a decent salary with a decent contract and a loving family, and at some point things will get better :) x

Clubfrog - did you get in touch with the LRA today? Were they of any help?

Clubfrog you are not the only one with these problems, i'm also being paid under min wage although my situation is slightly different its still not right.
As everyone said to me you need to sit down with your employer and talk about everything, have a pen and paper and show her that she is not paying you enough and that getting home late isn't right.
I'm having my meeting tonight 'gulp' but i am quite looking forward to it because i might start getting paid enough and treated a bit better. and if they don't like it then it might be worth finding a family who are a bit more accomodating. Also demand a contract, it really is important
Good luck

Not stupidity - we all started somewhere and learnt these things as we went along. The internet is a great help and I still learn the odd new thing and have been a nanny for over 25 years.

With regard to annual leave... the Labour Relations Agency website has quite good info about it LRA: Annual Leave. Legislation is in The Working Time Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1998, plus the amendments. A key date seems to be April 2009 when statutory annual leave entitlement in Northern Ireland changed to being 5.6 weeks.

my core hours are 8-3 mon-fri!

Core hours? That to me indicates some flexibility on the hours. When you agreed to do this job, were you told how many hours a week it was?

£5 Net I feel is still likely to be under National Minimum Wage for your age. If you work 35 hours a week, £5 Net equates to £5.45 an hour Gross, if your tax code is 747L. See www.mranchovy.com/calc/
What is on your last payslip? Does that detail things like Hours worked, pay, income tax and national insurance deductions?

Info about Pay & Payslips - that page also has contact details for The Labour Relations Agency (LRA) which offers free impartial advice on employment issues for those in Northern Ireland. So they may well be worth contacting (have a copy of the draft contact in hand, so you can discuss things based on that contract as well as what you are finding is happening at the moment).

You have been with them almost a year and yet have not got a Written Statement/Contract detailing what you have agreed to work. You should have had one within the first 2 months of working.

£5 net we would need to know your tax code and any deductions (student loan etc) to know whether you were getting NMW whivh is expressed gross.

Either way you need a contract. Do you have nanny insurance? Their legal line should be able to give you some more advice about the best course of action.

Based on past behaviour make sure you get overtime written in.

As a nanny you are an employee. Hence

1. You have a right to a written contract
2. you have a right to minimum wage
3. You have a right to 28 days paid holiday (incl bank holidays) based on 5 day weeks
4. You have the right to work agreed hours (save to the extent your contract provides otherwise)

You are indeed being taken for a ride. Questions you need to consider are:-

1. is your employer operating PAYE or are you being paid cash in hand. If the latter, your ability to enforce your rights through a tribunal could be more difficult (although you could grass them up on the tax).
2. How easy it would you be find another job (and how easy it woudl be for employer to find someone else)

It may well be true that they cannot afford to pay more in which case (notwithstanding your rights) you will either have to leave or just accept it (which turns on how easy it would be for you to find another job or her to find another nanny). I have a friend in NI and my impression is that nannies are really quite rare and nurseries and CMs are more the norm, but her DC are older now so things may have changed.

£5 an hour sounds low but you are not giving us full info about that salary. Is that Gross or Net? Are you under 21? Northern Ireland has different laws to England, so it could take a while to check what applies in Northern Ireland. You have mentioned NMW, is that the same in NI as it is in England?

You need to get back to her about the contract. It sounds like she's taking you for a ride. Our nanny is paid £70 per day (she brings her own child with her) for three days a week 9am-7pm, all meals are included for her and her dd - she usually has breakfast and lunch at ours, and ds is at nursery all morning until midday (my dd is there all day though). We have a nominal 4 weeks leave, but to be honest I'm very relaxed about it. She hasn't taken the mickey, but this year she's ended up with about 6 weeks paid leave, but as we've easily been able to accomodate it I've not worried about it.

Don't forget 5.6 weeks is based on doing a 5 day week so scale that down if it is a part time job. And it would usually be at normal pay rate. Minimum wage should also usually apply if you are live out.

It's customary to include food in job terms as you can hardly nip out if got kids but that is a matter for negotiation.

yes full paid holidays including bank holidays

Thanks..pregnancy brain