Please help! I've given my childminder 4 weeks notice and she mentioned to me that I have to pay her 3 weeks holiday?!

I do agree though, she is chancing her arm.

If the contract started in September she should've only had five days off before January 2014, and has thus far accrued 12 days up to July 30.

So although the totals come back to the same figure over he period of the contract, you would've been well within your rights to pay her nix for the additional five days at christmas, but you'd have to pay that as additional pay now.

I calculate that 6 days at 18 comes to £108, so actually what she's owed is less than the deposit. Up to you if you want to persue the £72 that she will owe you, should she retain the deposit.

but by that reckoning the 14 or so weeks before Christmas would accrue one of the weeks she took off at Christmas . Does the 4 weeks include BHs as I'd read the first page as suggesting not , which would be at least another 2 days of the 2 weeks over Christmas.

It's a very confusing contract, isn't it?

But the booked holiday in august isn't anything to do with anything, it's for holiday entitlement accrued to the point of the termination of contract,so up to 30 July, she has accrued 10/12s of four weeks, roughly 17 days, of these she has already had 11 days, so the balance of six days will be payable at the cm holiday rate of £18 per day.

Actually, looking closer at the contract, the holiday year starts on 1 Jan and runs to 31 Dec. She'll have worked 30 out of 52 weeks by the end of July, with only one day off. She was not entitled to the two weeks off at Xmas, but they've been paid... I'd still say accept you've lost the deposit, but she can write off anything extra.

A bit of a chancer all round, this one.

It says charges for absences. It does not say (unless I've read it wrong and missed a clause, I'm struggling with the drop box site) there is a right to be paid in lieu on termination of the contract. Since she is not a worker, she does not have that right therefore. The childminder's booked holiday for August is not an absence, since the contract will already have terminated.

As you are going on holiday yourself on 1st August, your notice period can not include that date. Giving written notice tomorrow, does not include that date, so I can't see any problem.

Refuse to pay any more than the 4 week notice period. Offer what they already have as a deposit as a goodwill gesture.

Then await their counter offer. If they take it through small claims they will need to prove the money is owed and the court will expect there to have been some negotiation. So by offering that she keeps the deposit, you are negotiating.

Not clear about about what fee she would be wanting during her holiday time, the contract seems to mention a daily rate and a rate for when childminder is off. I guess it would be the 'childminder off' rate, so the 180 would cover 10 days of those 3 weeks she is wanting, so is a good offer to settle things in my view.

She's not a worker, but she does have a contract clearly stating her holiday entitlement, signed by OP.

She is most certainly bound, and can be held liable by the terms of that contract, however the cm seems to be misinterpreting the contract or forgetting that she's already had the 11 days of, so her holiday entitlement is reduced accordingly.

Workers are entitled to 5.6 weeks holiday per year. However, that's a bit of a red herring since I'd be staggered (especially since I've read the contract) that she is a worker. You are not her employer if she's providing childminding services from her own home to yours and other children, you are her client. Regardless of what she's taken so far, pro rata shares etc, this is a commercial arrangement. You are giving her four weeks' notice and there your liability ends. No doubt she's pissed off that she's not getting paid as much for her holiday but unfortunately that's life.

Ah, then it sounds like it is her holiday she's taken, in that case, she is owed the six days or so at the £18 rate

She won't be paying for holidays after the contract ends, she'll be paying for holiday accrued whilst the contract was in place. Any taken will be deducted from this amount, it just depends if the times the cm wasn't used so far was due to the cm taking holiday, or the OP not using the cm.

It depends if the eleven days IS the cms holiday though - looking at the charges for absence, if it's simply that the OP had time off work and chose not to send her child, it is chargeable at £18 per hour and won't count towards the childminders four week holiday entitlement.

Assuming that the 4 weeks paid holiday should be "earned" over a year, given that you'll have used her services for 45 out of 52 weeks (roughly 85%) she'd be "entitled" to 17 days off in that period. She's had 11, so the absolute maximum she'd be due is 6 days. And I can't see how she can possibly expect to be paid holidays after your contract ends!

I note she's holding a deposit equal to a week's pay. Let her keep that and tell her to go whistle for any extra.

Did you choose to not use the cm for the two weeks at Xmas and the odd day in May? Ie was the cm still available for you to use?

And yes, I'd expect it will be pro-rata'd.

Leaving aside the two weeks at christmas for the moment:

She is entitled to four weeks a year. The fact that she hasn't taken any already doesn't mean that she isn't entitled to them just because the contract has ended. When the contract ends doesn't have an impact on anything other than the number of days she is entitled to...she is still entitled to whatever proportion of holiday pay.

The issue, so far as I can see, is if the fifteen days already paid is actually part of the cms holiday entitlement, or if it's holiday the OP took and had to carry on paying to save Dd's place, ifykwim.

If you give her 4 weeks notice I don't see how you ate liable forcangvfees after that.
Give her written notice and pay up till the end of your notice period and then no more.
I run a mursery. If my parents give me a months notice then thst is all they pay.

I think the key question is whether you have to pay for times when you could've sent your child to the cm, but didn't - if so, the two weeks at Xmas won't be the cms 'holiday' time if you could've sent her but didn't.

Assuming a five day week, 20 x 10/12 = 16.67, which is more or less three five day weeks, so I suspect this is where she got the figure from.

Yes your post sounds a bit confused. I can't read the pages you've posted, so this is based on your OP alone. (Am not a lawyer, layperson's view).

If you want her to take care of DD between 22.8 and 30.8 (or it will be 25.8 - 30.8, due to her absence) then whether you are giving notice now or not, the care arrangement doesn't end until 30.8. So it may be then that either

1. she expects you to pay for the child's place while you are away (this is fairly standard)
2. she expects you to pay for her holiday over a contract period from 26.9.13 - 30.8.14 Or a combination of the two.

If you are willing to terminate the contract now, then I would expect holiday would be pro rataed ie 26.9.13 - 28.7.14 (four weeks from today) which is 5/6 or 17 working days of holiday. So far you have paid 11.

So if I've read and understood your OP correctly you are giving the CM 4 weeks notice and will no longer be using her service after the 30th July 2014? If that's the case then no, you don't owe her any holiday pay.

but if you plan to book her until 30th august that would be another 4 weeks of allowance.

Sorry, yeah, 10/12s.

I don't think you should pay.

I would expect to pay four weeks pro rata'd for the length of the contract, so 11/12s of four weeks, possibly minus the two weeks she had off at Xmas, unless that was 'your' holiday?

This is what would happen if she was an employee, but can't actually read the contract. Hopefully someone better with legal matters will be along soon!