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Original poster

Nanny holiday entititlement and what about when you go away?

27 replies

history · 13/02/2012 14:48

Hi all,
I am in the process of employing a nanny as I'm going back to work. One of the best candidates has informed us she has 2 * 2 weeks holiday already booked over the next year, none of which fit into school holidays when we would be going away or taking leave, so obviously we would have to sort out alternative childcare cover for all of those 4 weeks. I can understand that we could just wear this for the first year and then contractually say after year 1 then it's the 50/50 spilt on choice. My question is that when we then go on holiday at the times we choose or take leave she obviously will not be required for work so I'm assuming that it isn't unreasonable to say that she has to take our hols as unpaid leave as she has already used or booked in her whole paid holiday allocation (excluding BH's)? Even if we are in normal 50.50 land and we use leave beyond her 4 weeks and so son;t require her for work - what is good practice - obviously she gets additional leave but would it normally be unpaid? Advice please?!

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PaulaMummyKnowsBest · 13/02/2012 15:34

would you be happy if your boss told you they were going away and you had to take that time off as unpaid?

Nannies get paid for the hours they're contracted to you for. If you choose not to use those hours, you still have to pay for them

callaird · 13/02/2012 15:32

I'm a nanny and as she has already booked 4 weeks holiday, I would say that she has to take two of those as unpaid as she is over her entitlement. Then the time when you are away you can then ask her to do child related jobs for you, spring clean the children's room/s, batch cook for the freezer, sort through clothes and toys and take grown out of to charity shop/hospital/second hand shop/or if you are lucky, do an NCT sale! Or pack them up for storage for the next one. I have vaxed carpets in nursery/playroom, stored all baby equipment in the loft, I even sanded and revarnished a small kitchen table (bosses were away for a month!)

If, in due course, you go over your entitlement, you can ask her to do the above while you are away, but I would put it in the contract.

These are things that I have happily done for my previous employers, including house sitting while they are away (basically having a holiday in a huge house! My bosses have been very laid back and have encouraged me to have friends/family to visit and stay. They say, if they can trust me with their children who are irreplaceable then they can trust me with their house/belongings which are insured!) they leave me a list of jobs to do and I have to finish them by the time they get back. Generally the jobs take up less than a third of the time they are away and that includes very short days!

I don't think these are unreasonable things to ask.

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