To think it’s actually really unfair to be charged for bank holidays at nursery?

[bouncinround]

And no, I’m not going to complain about it because I don’t want anyone to think I begrudge the staff a day off. I don’t. But I do resent paying for a service I’m not receiving.

I don't know why they don't open for the kids of parents who have to work BH anyway

Well, both can be true.

Private day nurseries do generally make a fairly tidy profit because staff costs are low and what they charge parents are high.

Preschool type nurseries are a bit different but we don’t use those.

Imagine if employers asked how they can justify paying staff for a bank holiday when they’re not getting any work in return. Same thing surely.

I get paid by my employer. I don’t bill my clients though.

Our nursery used to charge slightly less for Mondays if you did PT.
FT rate was cheaper than 5 single days. I assume that overall the balances out.

I agree. Our nursery was open. It had a lot of doctor / nurse parents and also offered shift pattern days.

I am self employed and don’t get paid on days I don’t work. But my day rate is calculated to cover holidays. All nursery parents should pay a tiny bit for staff holidays including BHs. It shouldn’t be disproportionately on the Monday families.

So many people on this thread being deliberately dense 😂. Completely agree OP. The burden of paying for staff bank holidays is disproportionately shouldered on the parents who schedule their children in on Mondays, whilst other parents with more flexibility can opt out to deliberately avoid paying for a service they don’t receive. If the business worked out how much they needed to charge per day based upon their yearly running costs, then every day would be charged equally and every parent would contribute proportionately.

eta: no one is suggesting the staff don’t get paid for the bank hols, or that the nursery digs deeper into its pockets. A tiny increase in the daily rate spread across the entire paying parents to cover only 8 days would be much fairer.

You’ll get a lot of heat for this post. (I did when I made a similar point!). I felt the same as you. I find it bizarre to be charged when they are closed. The same I always felt there should have been a little flexibility on holidays/sickness.like a certain amount of days a year. Also my nursery would choose to close after lunch just before Christmas but still charge for a full day. I’m self employed and a single mum with no other childcare and so end up losing a days work AND pay for nursery when they are closed so it’s a double whammy. they have us over a barrel!!
My daughter is at a pre-school now and doesn’t go on a Monday!

But if they had a day off unpaid, it wouldn’t be a bank holiday for them. The whole point of bank holidays is that they are an extra paid day off. Therefore service users such as yourself have to cover this. YABU.

I hate this too, the minute I went on Maternity leave I changed my DS's Monday to a Tuesday

Unfortunately the government now control 3/4s of the childcare businesses and have say over the remaining 1/4 if you can think of any other private businesses who have the charges and terms and conditions dictated by government id like to know which industry it is.

No one is suggesting they should not be paid; the opposite.

What we are suggesting is that this pay should not solely be the responsibility of the parents of the Monday children.

I didn’t even know that was a thing - that is ridiculous. You pay for a service, you’re not receiving that service so why should you have to pay. You’re not an employer, it’s not your company so why should the costs fall on you.

I feel for the people who have to work bank holidays and find alternative childcare - ultimately paying twice.

That's your bad planning, I changed my working days to send my kids Tues,Weds and Thurs so I didn't have to pay for bank holidays. Most people I know avoid sending their kids both Mondays and Fridays

that’s your bad planning

Well, for one thing, not everyone has the luxury of choosing the days they work. Quite a few organisations will happily agree to part time but they tell you which days you are working.

DH WFH Monday and Friday. I therefore work on those days. So it’s good planning from the point of view of our family. It does not mean I should have to pay for a nursery that isn’t open.

It is outrageous that you are charged for a service when it is closed. Lots of people slating your viewpoint and then in the same breath conceding that they have opted out of Mondays to avoid paying it themselves! How many people would be happy to pay their cleaner/builder/tutor for not attending on a bank holiday? You do not employ the nursery staff directly so if their employer wants to give them the day off, this needs to come out of a central fund and be budgeted for in a way that does not adversely affect a small proportion of clients.

My youngest attends nursery on Mondays and we are not invoiced for bank holidays when they are shut. Daily fees are an eye-watering £95 though (London) so I assume they have factored in bank holidays to that in order to spread the cost amongst all parents. I think that's fair.

If you work part time avoid Mondays. Not just for this reason but because it also means your holiday gets swallowed up by them. If you avoid Mondays you get to choose a different day for your holiday.

Ours doesn’t close on bank holidays. It’s great! It’s closed two weeks at Christmas and that’s it.

And mine have both gone Mondays and Fridays so would have been pretty rubbish otherwise.

But it is.

It is a national holiday and the staff still has to be paid for that day off. Just like you do in your job.

Agreed. Like many other businesses, we have to pay our staff for bank holidays, but obviously this is just a coat of doing business. Not sure why it has become the norm for customers to cover that cost!

Just to clarify, nurseries are not "struggling businesses". They may pay their workers a low wage considering the importance of their job, but I have two separate friends who are both in the process of buying nursery number 2 and 3 because it's so profitable.
( And it's a struggle to meet up with them because they are always on holiday!)

We get paid on bank holidays but it comes out of the company's profits. It has to because we can't/don't charge any work to clients that day. So it doesn't have to be a choice between paying your staff or charging customers. I'm not sure why so many people seem to see private nurseries effectively as charities!

It used to make me a bit ragey when DC were in child care. But it's just the payment system makes it obvious because they charge per day. I'm in Aus, where it's similar, and here there's a charging cap so they can't raise rates across the year to cover public holidays, so charge for them instead.

By contrast, DS is now in a private high school & we pay per term, not day, so paying for public holidays aren't even a thought. The annoyance here is that private schools get more school holidays which primary parents have to often pay to cover extra child care.