Do you pay self employed cleaners/gardeners etc. if they go on holiday?

[Pinotpleasure]

We’ve moved back to the UK after living overseas for many years and I don’t know what the norm is; we have a large ‘mature’ garden and when we purchased this house a gardener used to come here for the previous owners. We’ve continued his services.

He is here for three hours every fortnight. He used to work for a gardening company and worked in our garden and for others ‘on the side’. He resigned recently and has gone self employed.

He’s not coming on his next scheduled visit as he’s going on holiday (Spain).

He’s a really nice guy, not far off retirement age. Very modest and unassuming. I know he won’t ask for ‘holiday pay’ but should we pay his normal rate/half rate or only pay him when he’s here? (16 pounds per hour and on the books).

WWYD? Thanks in advance.

I feel like if you can afford to and he's a good gardener then that's a lovely gesture but I would have thought like most self employed people holidays aren't paid so he probably wouldn't expect it like you say.

No, I only pay window cleaners/gardeners etc for times they actually visit.

I pay mine per visit so this would never come up as an issue.

Holiday pay generally goes off a contract when you're employed. As he's self employed and you just hire him to do you're garden he isn't entitled to any. I personally wouldn't, as someone else has said they don't pay the window cleaner when they are away.

Not if they are self employed.

What do you mean he's 'on the books'? To me that means you employ him so yes, you would pay holiday pay to him?

No.

He should calculate holidays into his rate.

If you want to be nice to anyone whose services you use regularly then you give them extra at Christmas.

I'm self-employed.

I don't get holiday pay, or sick pay, or a pension, or any of the other standard benefits of being employed.

I cannot ask clients to pay me for work I haven't done because i've been sick or on holiday. Your cleaner should not be asking either.

I'm going self employed and plan my rates to include holiday pay etc.

MN has a very patronising attitude to self employed service workers sometimes.

I am assuming that by "on the books" the OP means that she receives an invoice, or pays by bank transfer or something rather than giving cash.

(Of course cash isn't necessarily dodgy, but MN seems to think it means tax dodging)

Yes, to me on the books means employed (PAYE) as opposed to self-employed/sub-contracting. I think OP has the terms muddles perhaps.

I think when OP said "on the books" she meant her gardener is declaring his income for tax. Depending on his income/number of clients it would be better if she were to gift some cash to him so it wouldn't have to be declared as income. If he has a lot of clients and they were all to give him holiday pay it could well move him into a higher tax band and what has been intended as goodwill could end up costing him more

I don't pay my cleaner when she is on holiday (typically for a month in the Summer). I did continue to pay throughout lockdown though when she couldn't come, I pay on BH's when she doesn't come and if we are on holiday and don't need her, we still pay, plus if she's ill (which has been only once in the 10 years she's worked for us). She's fantastic and we really value her, so try to be fair.

@Stroopwaffels - yes you are correct. We pay him directly by bank transfer and I know he is registered with the authorities for tax.

I do give him cash from time to time as he likes to choose various seasonal plants at his local garden centre (he’s always after a bargain!) but he is as honest as the day is long and always produces a detailed receipt) :)

I’d love to have a cleaner (big old house) but we can’t afford both a cleaner and gardener and I’d rather have someone who is knowledgable about plants and can trim/prune things which I’d be useless at and I do the cleaning instead.

I pay per visit. It means I don't pay if they're ill/on holiday/can't make it. Their terms, they refuse if I offer to pay for illness-related absences

No, you don't pay self employed people sick pay or holiday pay. As a PP said, the way to show your appreciation is via Christmas tops, birthday present etc.

We have regular gardeners
Twice a month for 5hours, 2 guys
February to October only
We pay them a decent rate but only when they visit plus xmas booze. We are pretty flexible about when they come. This is a second job they do around their regular shift work.
They do general garden maintenance except mowing as we have a ride on for that and we do it.
We couldn't afford cleaner and gardener but the garden is extremely big and at this time of year needs more hours than we could give. If we had infinite money it would easily keep a FT gardener busy but we just try to keep it at a manageable level rather than wild jungle.

I don't use a gardener but I do use a window cleaner and they charge me per visit.

They are service providers, not employees.

I'm a self employed gardener and I would not expect to be paid whilst on holiday, or whilst my clients are on holiday.

Self employed people charge 'more' because they don't get sick days or holiday days. The extra money per hour is effectively money to cover these days.

So no..

Self-employed people don't usually get sick pay, or holiday pay, or various other benefits of employment - they factor this into their hourly rate. I wouldn't dream of paying "holiday pay", and as a self-employed person I would actively not want holiday pay in case it raised eyebrows with HMRC.