to want to take nanny to court for £40.25

[VentiPeppermintMochaWithWhip]

Long story short:
Nanny of 9 months announces she is 6 weeks up the duff to the guy she broke up with late last year... (it's one of those "If I get pregnant, he'll stay with me" babies that I think she is now regretting)

Got a text yesterday in the middle of a uni lecture from said nanny:
Cnt get kids 2day I quit

I immediately leave uni to collect kids from school, ask her what is going on, she says it's confidential.

Then last night, I tot everything up for her last wages and discover that she's taken too much holiday by three weeks this year. After deducting this month's wages, etc, it turns out she owes us £40.25

I inform her of this yesterday. She then has the gonads to text me this morning asking if she can work her four weeks notice?!?!

I very politely but sternly tell her no, that she quit, that she is no longer welcome here, and requested that she return her key today whilst I'm at uni.

I spoke to a friend who is also a solicitor last night, who has agreed to send a letter requesting the money.

I KNOW it's only £40 and it's not the money I'm pissed off about... it's the fact that she flipping TEXT an hour before the kids were due to be collected, that she gave no notice, never came to speak to me about any of her issues, nothing!!

AIBU?

[StayingDavidTennantsGirl]

I would have thought that announcing she was quitting, and then following it up by failing to turn up for work (ie not picking the children up when she was supposed to, and not turning up since then) makes it pretty clear that the notice to quit was intended to be with immediate effect.

[UnlikelyAmazonian]

Why would you employ such a slaaaaaag? You have no respect for this person who looks after your children
so why should she have respect for you?
I bet you have treated her with derision too many times.
grrr

And now you are going to either leave the thread or come back to it to post me some crap bombast.

[StayingDavidTennantsGirl]

You need to explain such an extreme reaction to me, UnlikelyAmazonian - I have just reread the OP, and can see nothing that made me want to vomit. If you are referring to the OP saying; "it's one of those "If I get pregnant, he'll stay with me" babies that I think she is now regretting" - I assume that she knows the nanny well enough to be able to make these statements. They are only unpleasant if untrue, imo.

[UnlikelyAmazonian]

Supposing she had been wiped out in a car crash...and therefore quit with immediate effect...I expect you would be the type to be harumphing on some board about the difficulty you are having finding a quick replacement for the dead one. You pompous twat.

[takethisonehereforastart]

If she didn't collect the children when she was supposed to doesn't that mean she ended her own employment immediately with that text?

So the OP shouldn't be expected to let her work her notice period (or pay her for it without making her work it) when she has effectively walked out with no warning. She did it by text and didn't say she was giving her notice, the OP did go and give her a chance to explain what might be wrong and she replied that it was confidential.

Anybody would assume that that meant the nanny was just calling it quits there and then and had given up all rights to her notice period.

OP I would put it in a solicitors letter as the others have suggested.

Make the point that she left without warning and without giving proper notice, leaving you to collect you children with barely an hour to spare and that in sending that text and refusing to collect your children as planned she effectively walked out on her post with no warning and ended and breached any contract regardeing notice periods and pay. Also say that she has already received three weeks of holiday leave and pay which you are prepared to overlook in the circumstances.

It's up to you what you do about the referrence but perhaps mention that in the solicitors letter too.

I wouldn't actually take her to court though. She is pregnant and probably very stressed, I wouldn't want to add to that and you may look very bad in court when she stands there with a massive bump and no job looking sorry for herself and you stand next to her saying "I want my £40 back." I don't think the money is the point though, I think you are naturally reacting to the way she just walked out on you with no warning.

[UnlikelyAmazonian]

Well frankly david, yes that in itself is shoot-worthy. I suppose the OPs babies were planned with military financial planning and a lot of factored in not-being-there-to-raise-them. Bollox to her.
Court for forty quid? Jeez

[StayingDavidTennantsGirl]

You have absolutely no grounds on which to base such an inflammatory and unpleasant assumption, UA. Frankly I think you are being way nastier than the OP.

[UnlikelyAmazonian]

What are the actual facts in this slavery case?

What was she being paid?

What her conditions of service?

Where did she live?

How long had she worked for the OOP?

What was the OPs relationship like with this nanny who cared for her babies?

[UnlikelyAmazonian]

How long had the nanny worked for the oop?

OP? do tell.

[UnlikelyAmazonian]

David, are you a lawyer?

Thought not.

[silverfrog]

the actual facts are as set out in the OP (one assumes)

the (former) nanny's wages are neither here nor there - of absolutely no relevance to this. nor is where she lived.

what an extraordinary set of questions.

why on earth woudl you leap to the conclusion that she was being paid badly/had atrocious terms of service, etc?

[StayingDavidTennantsGirl]

If you had actually read the OP, you'd see the nanny had worked for her for 9 months, UA.

[jugglingjo]

Yes, stillfrazzled, if I was OP or yourself I'd chill, and yes I would send a card to a young woman who looked after my kids for 9 months while I was at college ( nothing wrong with that of course ) and then went on to have a baby of her own.
I feel people would get more out of their life and relationships if they were more human and compassionate.

Employing a nanny is not your regular employer/employee relationship. There's no point pretending it is, though that's not to say both nanny and parents can't take a professional and straight-forward approach.

[StayingDavidTennantsGirl]

I don't need to be a lawyer in order to see that there is no basis in fact anywhere on this thread for the ridiculous assumptions you have been making. I just need intelligence, and I have plenty of that.

[takethisonehereforastart]

Unlikely it was nine months, she says in her first post.

[KatieMiddleton]

You need to get over it and let it go.

And lose the shitty attitude about her pregnancy. Not nice and completely irrelevant to what has happened with her job.

[UnlikelyAmazonian]

'6 weeks up the duff'

that is shocking terminology to use in relation to the pregnancy of a girl she has willingly left her own babies in the care of for nine months

'up the duff' ?? wtf?? Typical on these kind of cleaner/nanny/slave labour/notting-hill coffee shop/kings road type twunts.

[lesley33]

She worked for less than a year so she has very few employment rights. She can't claim for unfair dismissal unless on the grounds of race andsex - I think the new equality act extends this to some other types of discrimination.

But unless she can claim you discriminated against her on one of these, then she has no legal come back for wrongful dismissal.

[silverfrog]

I think you have issues re: nannies, tbh, Unlikely.

you have absolutely nothing (going form this thread) to base your assumptions on.

you do seem to ahve a lot of contempt for anyone who employs someone to help in the home, though.

[KatieMiddleton]

Where's this idea nannies are slave labour? Mine is paid very well and looked after. But then I would never talk about her (or any other employee) in the way the OP has even though I'd be furious if she walked out with no notice.

[AgentZigzag]

I'd be interested in hearing more about the OPs/nannys relationship as well (assuming it's not the third chapter ).

In other situations employers can be compassionate and give a bit of leeway if an employee is having personal problems, it might not have anything to do with the job but the boundaries between work/home aren't always clear cut.

The way I read the OP talking about the nanny though made me think there is a lack of respect for the nanny, like tryharder said, if someone you liked found themselves in a difficult situation your first reaction would be to comfort and help them.

But then I'm a bit suspicious of someone who's pregnant but also has gonads

[UnlikelyAmazonian]

'My financial advisor/bank.investments manager has got up the duff with one of those kind of babies she regrets...'

I have met many many people like the OP. They stink.

[UnlikelyAmazonian]

Katie, hacked off is ok. Posting on an internet forum with such derogatory terms to ask about a measly 40 quid suggests the OP..

[beesimo]

OP

Whatever you now think of this young now jobless woman, her abandonment by her partner and her pregnancy you don't kick people when their down.

What a shame its not snowing