Nanny 20 weeks pregnant when she started job!!

Boffmonster - the 2 week minimum is a minimum that a women is not permitted to work by law. The nanny is still entitled to the full maternity leave period (abeit without maternity pay if not eligible) and can't be forced back earlier.

2 weeks off are you serious and shes to leave her 2 week old baby i think not what mother would be able to do such a thing. i think its shocking that a mother would expect another mother to leave there 2 week old baby.
i agree she is not entitled to be paid which means she can take more time off unpaid really as its not as if she is expecting her emplyer to pay her plus she will be entitled to maternity allowance so she could take 9 months then return to wrk without baby. i no some ppl return to wrk very early on but surely its the mother choice not an employers i took 5 weeks off but then im a childminder so i was still with my daughter not leaving her to go to wrk. there alot of talk about 2 weeks not being enough time for fathers to bond with there baby and that they should have more paternity leave so why expect a mother to be any different.
i know a girl who wrked in my fiances wrk she had no idea she was pregnant went to hospital with pain and had a baby obvouisly her wrk did not pay her maternity as the didnt even no she was pregnant (nor did she) but they did not expect her bk after 2 weeks infact i dont think they expected her back at all and in the end she didnt return back to wrk there. instead when her daughter was old enough she looked for another job with better hours

I believe in being fair to both sides, so I'd be inclined to follow the letter of the law, by:

• not paying maternity pay as (if I am correct) she had not worked for me for a month before getting pg;
• giving the minimum time off (2 weeks unpaid, I believe) and
• informing her that I expected her back without the baby because I deliberately hadn't sought a nanny share in the first place.

That is what my workplace would have done in the same situation (indeed they were very strict on the not bringing baby to work thing).

I have a very good friend who had used her nanny since her children were babies, I think as she and her husband both work full time it was easier to keep her on even when the kids started school and the nanny had almost the whole day to herself. However this nanny took advantage and although it was agreed that when she unexpectly found her self pregnant she could bring her baby with her it didnt really work. She told the older children to be quiet when her baby was sleeping, she turned away their cleaner a couple of times as she didnt want the noise walking up her child and of course she couldnt do things like take the kids to the cinema. She also left lots of her stuff over the weekend, and without permission started putting up baby gates.

She has now become a childminder but I think like other posters - surely this nanny couldnt expect to start a job, after 2 months reveal she was expecting and then expect you to accept she would now be bringing her own child with her. 100% agree that this isnt going to work.

Presumably her partner could do it, or grandparents, or they could alternate.

the only thing about putting the baby in a nursery or at a childminders is that do nannys not usually wrk long hours longer than childminders or nurseries so how would she pick her little one up, would you allow her to go out at the end of the day a pick we one up and maybe return for an hour or will you just let her away earlier.

Poor nanny. I think in her position I would take 6 months maternity leave and then come back, and put the baby in a nursery or childminder. With tax credits etc she'd still probably be better off financially. There probably aren't enough jobs available in the area for her to be picky about finding one where she can bring her baby too.

It's hard for ALL employers waiting in limbo to find out if they employee will or won't be coming back to work following maternity leave. That's why it's important to keep in touch.
I think it affects employers with one, or only a few employees more because they are so much more reliant on that person... they can't assign the work to other people while they recruit a temp to cover the work.
Arguments could be made for small employers to be exempt from some of this legislation... but there would be outrage from women if that happened.

I do think it's hard for nanny employers waiting in limbo to find out if their nanny is coming back from maternity leave. I told my ex employer on the day I told her I was pregnant that I would be leaving mainly because I knew there was no way she would consider having my Ds back with and also because I travelled 6-8wks a year with the family. I also wanted to enjoy the time with my baby. I've looked after other peoples children for 17+ years. I want to look after my own now!

I am currently working 30hrs a week with Ds in tow for a family with a similar aged child and, for us, that works very well. The job ends in Feb so not sure what I will do then but as I'd like another Dc, I will probably temp as I'd feel really bad if I started a new job and then found out I was pregnant.

If your nanny has a Dp and supportive parents then perhaps she will come back after maternity leave and leave her baby with her parents. It's hard to say what you'll do before the baby arrives and you find out what kind of little personality they have. My Ds was a nightmare little clingy and didn't sleep through until 9mths. All my 'work babies' went through by 12wks. I was a bit shocked tbh. Also I bf for 11mths and the sofa still bears a dent from where I sat with small child attatched for hours on end!

Your ds needs a lot of one to one and that's what you want and that's what you pay for. A nanny shouldn't expect otherwise. Some employers are happy for a nanny and child in tow and others aren't. Each employer is entitled to their own views on the subject. Good luck with finding a replacement.

Aha. My last child was born in 2005, so I'm out of date.

I suspect nanny's tears are not so much about having assumed anything in the future, but about the distress of suddenly findin gherself very pregnant with no maternity pay and no job to return to. I'm sure she is very stressed out.

But it sounds as though she will be looking for another job soon after the birth. And if this bit of maternity law hasn't changes in the last few years she can do this when the baby is two weeks old. Perhaps not ideal, but she will be neither the first nor the last. I would be more worried about putting a roof over our heads than I would about my right to stay home alone with my first child. As I have heard no mention of them I am sort of assumming there is no father and extended family in the picture.

I feel sorry for this nanny (oddly as I don't know her), but OP is of course within her rights to say she didn't sign up to having another baby in the house. She has to do what she feels is right for her own children (of course!).

Tanith, the OP has not said the nanny will not cope with three children. She simply does not want the nanny to bring her own child with her. Quite why the nanny presumed this would be fine is beyond me given the she has only been employed for two months not to mention the late notice re the pregnancy etc.

A nanny bringing her own child is not what the OP wants, she wants one to one care for her children not shared care. A newborn/toddler will need a certain level of care, equipment, may impact on activities/appointments/play dates and when the child is older school runs/activities etc may clash.

Financially, why should the nanny expect not to pay childcare costs for her own child? The OP is paying her to look after her children not her own baby.

Anthene, it's an amendment to Regulation 11. See SI 2006 No. 2014 - An employee who intends to return to work earlier than the end of her additional maternity leave period, shall give to her employer not less than 8 weeks' notice of the date on which she intends to return.

If they intend to return at the end of their maternity leave, then I don't think they need to give any advance notice.

Not sure how it effects Ordinary Maternity Leave.

No, I meant 4 weeks notice to current employer that you are returning from maternity leave. So temp nanny continues on basis that she can be let go with 4 weeks notice at any time.

wanna be- thats a very good point

op -did you check ref from job before?

any mention of pregancy/why did she leave previous job?

athene- i have 2mths notice in my job as thats what i asked for

sure squiffy is lovely

Yes, Blondes, that is the gist of it. But, I thought it was 4 weeks notice, not 8. Has it changed in recent years or is my memory already failing me?

And I would like to add that Squiffy is lovely.

she sounds very manipulative. Doesn't tell you she's pregnant for two months, then wants to bring baby to work then cries when told no...

Why did she leave her previous job, do you know? I wonder if perhaps it was because her previous employers told her she couldn't bring her baby to work? . I'd be inclined to give them a call and ask tbh.

course nannies can look after 3 children - i do

but

why should the op have to share her care with another child when she wants a nanny to give 100% attention to her children?

yes all nannies want to go back to their jobs and take their baby, but a professional nanny should be able to see why a mum/their mb may not want this

But shared care is not what the OP is paying for. The nanny may be capable of doing it but the OP wants her children to have nanny's full attention and that, as an employer, is her right. It's impossible to say that the OP's children would have the same standard of care that they previously had if nanny brought baby with her. And being a nanny and dealing with children you nanny for is, I suspect, very differnt to dealing with your own child.

Surely the baby won't BE a newborn when she returns? Or are you expecting her to arrive straight from the maternity ward?
She may not be entitled to SMP, but she is probably entitled to MA. She might well decide to take maternity leave, in which case the baby will be older when she returns to you.

As for not managing to care for 3 children at a time, that's ridiculous. Countless mothers do it and many of them have children with special needs. We're talking about a professional nanny here. She must be well used to caring for all kinds of children, special needs or otherwise.

well done for telling your nanny she cant bring baby

i am suprised there were tears from her, surely she would have guessed she might not be able to bring her baby back,as she is just in her job plus your eldest needs more care then a nanny with nb can cope with

lets see if i have got this right in employment law

if i have a baby and my mb says i cant come back with baby (fair enough) but she has to leave my job open for a year,(and i say that i will get childcare/gp's etc to look after my baby)

so mb thinks i will come back (without baby), yet if i decide not to, i can leave her hanging for a year and only say 2mths before i would come back that actually i dont want to come back as i have found a job where i can take my baby

and there is nothing she can do - she has hired a temp and then can see if temp is free or that she has to find a new nanny

does seem a little unfair - surely the nanny should say if she is def coming back/can/cant find childcare or else the parents and charges are left not knowing what is happening for a year

or have i got hold of the wrong end of stick im blonde

maternity allowance is about the same amount as the smp. have you considered she mite take longer maternity leave if she cant bring baby to wrk even though she said she wouldnt take long as that was before she knew she couldnt take baby to wrk. as can you imagine leaving you baby at 1month maybe 2 month old to go back to wrk i dont think i could.

At least you have told her, so she can take that on board and decide what she want's to do. You are perfectly in your rights not to permit her to bring her baby to work... if it was an office job, baby would not be welcome.
Is your nanny getting support from her parents, from the babies father and his parents, etc? Is she aware of what she needs to do to start the benefits claim(s), so that she has some money when she stops work? Maternity Allowance isn't much and I'm not even sure if she can claim it (as depends on her previous work) but she should certainly be finding out for herself if she can get that. As her employer you can point her in the right direction (I'd suggest JobCenterPlus).

I'm not sure if anyone has said this but because your nanny was pregnant before she started the job she does not qualify for statutory maternity pay
"You get SMP if you have worked for the same employer for at least 26 weeks by the end of your 15th week before the expected week of childbirth (which is approx. the 26th week of pregnancy). In other words you need to have started the job before you got pregnant" - I'm Pregnant magazine Oct/Nov 2009