Pregnant nanny refusing to work

Feeling your pain Octo and hope a VERY clear chat and the lack of income compel your nanny into a more productive frame of mind

How are you coping this week Octo ? Are you off work now yourself?

The problem for a domestic employer may be having the time and resources to put together a professional and convincing case for sacking in these circumstances. In a corporate environment you have the benefit of additional witnesses to disciplinary conversations, poor performance etc. it might be harder if the only witness at times is the OP as it could become a case or her word against the nanny's on some things (e.g. Frequently being late to work). It doesn't look like problems were documented pre pregnancy either in this case.

You can sack a pregnant woman, as long as it's for reasons unrelated to her pregnancy.

As other posters have said, you need to keep a record of conversations about her time keeping etc, let her have a copy of notes and refer to the fact these conversations and warnings have been going on for some time (ie: it's an issue which has built up over time and the pregnancy is irrelevant). Look at the ACAS guidance on disciplinary procedure and follow the principles.

On a side note, I wish people who don't know anything about employment law would stop giving advice in these circumstances.

OP, could a local childminder take your son for wraparound care before and after his pre-school and could the twins go into nursery? If you need extra help at both ends of the day (eg to get children up and ready plus do the drop offs and pick ups could you accommodate an au pair? I appreciate this sounds complicated but it might give you a solution to engineer a redundancy and get yourself out of this mess as soon as possible. If you were creating an au pair job you would have to offer it to the nanny first but it is unlikely she would want it on au pair pay. You wouldn't have to do this forever if you weren't happy with this, just long enough to avoid an employment tribunal.

You would have to come up with some reasons why you were restructuring your childcare this way but I dare say you can. If nanny still hasn't sorted out her OFSTed registration, for example, one of your reasons could be a wish to spend your accumulated childcare vouchers!

Obviously, you will need to be consistent with references if your reason for dismissal is redundancy...

That's outrageous. Seek another legal opinion. You can't put up with another 6m of this you'll be out of a job!

Can you retract the extra leave you've given at new year. Say that you've had to use your holiday to cover her absence and now haven't enough holiday to cover her extra leave !!!

Also disciplinary notices if she continues to text rather than call with her shitty absence excuses. I don't even work in a job where people are relying on me like that and I'd have to call not text or email if sick.

grocklebox you are right to a degree, problem is when someone is pregnant, or disabled in some way, and you want to dismiss them, there are so many more legal implications you have to be careful of.

Just one example, my mom is a matron of a cancer ward, about 5mths ago one of her nurses was on the night shift. She thought she was having contractions so went down to labour dept, she told someone so ward wasn't left unmanned, but what she did do was to falsify documents claming she did the hourly bed checks from 2am-7am, signing and filling out the form in advance of going to labour ward, even inventing toilet breaks. There was recently a disciplinary, but because this nurse said it was baby brain, she was just in a rush to see midwife blah blah, the hospital decided she couldn't be sacked, despite making a potentially fatal error by falsifying nhs documents!!! If you consider this is the nhs who have powerful legal eagles at their disposal, it just goes to show how difficult it is to put any pregnant lady through any kind of disciplinary action.
I think it's so important the OP seeks a few legal opinions!!

op has said that she has 3 young children so financially a nanny suits her plus easier in theory as nanny comes to house and sorts out children compared to cm/nursery and op needs to get all 3 up/dressed etc

what was wrong with her refs, did the agency not check them out?? tho always ring latest one if possible and chat to them

agree keep phone with you and check, make sure volume is up so hear the ping of a text

Make her redundant and then use cm or nursery.

Sacking people is a mine field and not to be gone near.

Just serve her her notice period as per the contract.

You can totally fire someone when they are pregnant! You can't fire them because they are pregnant, but if you were going to fire them anyway then pregnancy doesn't come into it.

You can't suspend someone without pay for 9 months just because you feel like it. You can suspend someone while there is an investigation into something , but what would the OP be investigating? You could maybe suspend her until she is Ofsted registered....but you would need to start issuing formal warnings and give her notice etc.

I've thought of a possible way out for you. I am not a lawyer and you would need to seek legal advice regarding this approach.

You should seek to find another nanny and when you've found one, put your existing one on suspension for all the non pregnancy issues you have with her just as not Ofsted registered, not communicating when she will be off sick by the method you have instructed (phone calls) etc.
Her suspension will end when she goes on maternity leave.

Do you know if she has family locally that will look after her child for free when her maternity leave is over? If not, there would be a good chance that she would then want to bring her child to work. At this point you could refuse (looking after a baby + 3 of yours even if one is in school will be too much for her) that suggestion as the job is to only look after your own children only. At this point she would have no option and have to resign.

I understand why your husband might be stressed, but it's still a bad move. It's still going to look terrible in court. He needs to control himself.

Again, with the texting, I understand it's annoying, but you can help yourself by just checking your phone first thing. Or get DH to check it when he gets up. You shouldn't have to do that, but until you can get rid of her you need to think of ways to make it work as best as possible. Continue telling her to ring, but if she doesn't simply checking your phone in the morning will make your life easier. Out of interest, what time does she text? From your OP I thought she'd text the evening before to let you know she wasn't coming in?

You need to find an agency that provides emergency nannies. You're not paying your nanny so it shouldn't be too much of a financial strain to get cover for the day, although obviously not ideal.

Don't lose hope of finding a wonderful nanny, I'm now a CM but have been a nanny and have lots of nanny friends who are all incredible.

I would be tempted to seek a second legal opinion. Document everything, all communication, if you have any phone calls with her, follow it up with an email confirming that you both understood the same thing from your conversation.
Definitely review duties and do risk assessment as others have said. How much notice do you have to give her- is it 4 weeks?
Good luck, let us know how you get on x

You need to start keeping a log of problems and conversations you have about those problems. Give her formal warnings. You can't sack someone because you asked them to phone and they text (no matter how irritating that might be). You need to formalise it.

Re. the texting. I wouldn't let it worry you too much, just text back 'You need to call me asap' or similar. It's not worth raging over.

Re. the flu jab. No it isn't your job to tell her to get a flu jab, but if she's a bit dim/disorganised then it seems like it would be in your interests to advise her about it. You're cutting off your nose to spite your face on this one.

Re. not calling her references. Really, really stupid. You can't blame 'nannies' for your poor recruitment technique. There are loads of great nannies, but you need to employ someone who is already Ofsted registered and actually call their references.

Re. DH having a massive row with her. Not wise. You're employers you need to behave as such, shouting at her on the phone is not the way to go about it. If you want to get rid of her without a law suit, ringing her up, about a pregnancy related issue, and shouting at her is not going to help you. Calm down and do things properly.

Thanks!

Sean - the employer can recover 104% of the cost of maternity leave from the government. The extra 4% is towards the cost of the employers national insurance. The nanny still accrues holiday leave whilst on maternity leave which the employer has to cover the cost of.

Ask her if she'd like to take it as holiday or unpaid, as she isn't ill - and start looking for a replacement ASAP.

Just curious, does the OP have to pay her whilst she's on maternity leave, like an employer in another field would?

She's not entitled to sick pay. She isn't sick. She is choosing not to work because she feels it puts her and her baby at risk. I personally thought a high temp was only a significant risk in the first trimester anyway but leaving that aside I agree risk assessment is the way to go - that involves REASONABLE adjustments. It's not reasonable for a NANNY to wish to avoid contact with any child who might be off colour for 9 months which is what she's basically asking for. Give her some antibacterial hand gel and be clear you expect her at work unless the kids have a diagnosed and significant illness - anything involving a rash or antibiotics for example. And yes - look in to making her redundant and use a nursery instead.