To think nursery shouldn’t be charging me for bank holidays?

[Givemegoldensun]

Can I ask AIBU? Nursery costs just over £90 a day for an 8 month old, and they expect us to pay for bank holidays when they are not open. To me this seems unreasonable. We are talking about paying £185 for no service (Good Friday/Easter Monday). It this normal practice? I don’t want to be an asshole but we are financially stretched and I don’t think this is fair.

Do you work? Do you get paid for bank holidays?

What does it say in your contract with them?

It evens out over the year. The nurseries who don’t charge for bank holidays will charge a tiny bit more every day. Swings and roundabouts x

Usually they don’t charge for bank holidays, but spread the yearly cost over 12 months so that it is easier. Do your nursery not do that?

If you don't want to pay then you need to find another nursery that doesn't charge.

(Although they will build the coat of staff holidays into your overall fee and you will still pay anyway)

Yes of course I work… that’s how I can (just about ) afford to put a small baby through nursery. But private nurseries charge a huge amount in comparison to what they pay their very underpaid workers. There is limited correlation between the two. This is clearly about profit, not paying minimum wage workers. To think otherwise is incredibly naive.

"I don’t want to be an asshole", then please go educate yourself about the economy and how salaries are calculated 🤷🏻‍♀️

How much? Because we are already paying £92.50 a day.

It's normal and will probably be in your contract

I think it’s poor that a business can’t work out their pricing for the days they provide service. Of course they need to pay their staff for holidays and other required benefits, it doesn’t mean they charge you directly for those holidays and benefits, they should be wrapping them up into their total costs and working out their price from that. It just bellows “can’t do maths” to me.

It’s pretty standard for nursery contracts, and those that don’t will likely just spread the cost over the rest of the year so it’s the same really, just less transparent. I would expect it will have been in the contract when you signed up.

Well, that escalated quickly.

What does your contract say? That should explain it.

We’ve always paid monthly or termly once in school nursery. Monthly it’s the same every month regardless of bank holidays or no. of working days. So I don’t think it’s anything unusual. Check your contract though!

Of course it's normal. The staff still need to be paid and the building is still costing them money. It will be listed quite clearly in your contract.

I'd hate to run a nursery. People never seem to quite understand that there are costs involved.

I think the point that people are trying to make is that yes, it’s is totally normal for nurseries to charge for bank holidays. They just do it in slightly different ways.
Their staff still need paying and their building costs remain largely the same open or not.
These payments will almost definitely be in the contract you signed and it is extremely unlikely anything you say will get you out of paying it.
You will not be the only parents who don’t fancy paying it, they’re not going to say yes.

It’s pretty normal. I think most if not all nurseries do this?
I guess the alternative would be that they don’t charge those days but add the cost onto the remaining days anyway so it would cost the same overall . This way it’s spread evenly throughout the year.
they still have to pay their staff and bills etc.

Very normal practice.

I have seen some nurseries have a lower cost on Mondays to deal with this, but they still charge for public holidays.

Mine doesn't charge for bank holidays or the week and a bit they close over Christmas/new year. I assume they bump the daily rate up to cover it.

If you are getting paid for bank holidays then it's irrelevant that you have to pay. This way you get a paid day off work and get to spend the day with your child versus a working day and your child in nursery. The cost to you is the same.

It does feel unfair. This is why when I return to work after mat leave I’ll probably drop Mondays, maybe Wednesdays too if we can afford it.

Is this an option for you? You could condense your full time hours Tuesday-Friday. Otherwise you’ll always have the bank holiday issue.

If it wasn't charged it would be built into the daily rate for every other day you pay for. You probably don't get paid less on a week where there's a bank holiday so why should they?

Jesus. Who the hell is voting YBU? That’s outrageous. Of course you shouldn’t pay on the day they are closed! Do you pay for the coffee you don’t have when they are closed??

the nursery need to budget better putting up their price slightly so it averages that they can pay staff for bank hols when they are closed. This is the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard of.

Very normal unfortunately