Being sued by a disgruntled former nanny

[Angeldust99]

Has this happened to anyone else? It seems like everywhere I turn, I hear stories of disgruntled former employees suing their employers for money - often on made up grounds. It’s scary!

I'm pursuing legal advice to sue mine. Frankly a lot of places do shite things thinking they can get away with it. I don't know your circumstances, only you will know whether it's fair or not.

Often it’s because employers don’t realise they have to comply with employment law. If something goes wrong with the relationship, a lot of times the nanny has multiple avenues to sue.

Just realised this is your nanny. If the grounds are made up, you’ll need to get a solicitor and file a response. Has she actually filed or is this just a threat at the moment?

It's not scary if you are a good / fair employer

It's only scary if you do something wrong

Once you followed all employment law and kept records you should have nothing to worry about

It happened quite a lot about 15 years ago in London. Employers not understanding they were employers. I know a couple of people who had to pay out and another who refused, who ended up being investigated by HMRC.

What have you done or not done?

The courts don't usually make awards based on made-up grounds. It's far more likely that someone who got forced to pay up having failed to follow employment law would retrospectively claim that the grievance was made up than it is that a court would rule in favour of a plaintiff with no evidence.

Well my friend is a nanny and fell pregnant and her employer fired her on the spot. She sued and got a good payout which she more than deserved! As someone mentioned above I think some people think employment law doesn’t apply to them.

Stick within the law and treat people well, then they'll have no reason to 'sue' you.

I assume by sue that you mean take you to an employment tribunal. That's their right and if you've done nothing wrong then you have nothing to worry about.

Mine tried to as well. As I didn't want to pay gross for her. I think some nannies are paid gross but we didn't want to. She signed the contract

As long as you had a signed contract and did everything above board, you won’t have a problem

Nannies just want to be treated fairly as all employees do

You know that by law you need to pay your nanny a gross amount?

one tried years ago with us. We had interviewed and found the perfect candidate and we needed long term stability for Ds (SEN) and she had volunteered the information that she didn’t want dc herself for a few years so we thought it would be perfect. She started and 8 weeks later I had an appt and happened to see her leave the maternity unit (my appt was gynae so next door department). She was holding a folder (It must have been her booking appt). I spoke to Dh and we decided to let her go she hadn’t even told us yet she was pregnant so we got away with it and swiftly employed the other baby who we had also interviewed

What a shitty thing to do.

The fact that you're posting this like it is something to be proud of is shocking. I think she had a lucky escape not having to work for you.

This! Absolutely shocking. You fired her because you because she was pregnant WOW!

Wow. What shitty people you and your husband are.

Well in hindsight it was strange she offered the information that she wouldn’t be having children herself for a few years so could really get to know Ds and be a constant in his life as we were discussing his SEN. We would never have asked that kind of thing. She had started off really well but after a couple of weeks was late and other issues so it was probably a good thing for everyone , I just feel lucky I saw her . She tried to say we sacked her due to her pregnancy but we said we didn’t know we had sacked her due to poor timekeeping and the fact that I went PT and we no longer needed her for childcare

Because we needed a long term nanny to care for our SEN child and to bond with him and she had volunteered the information she wouldnt be having kids herself for a while which turned out to be a lie. It would have been so much disruption plus Ds needed a lot of carrying etc she wouldn’t have been able to keep up with the physical demands yet we would have had to accommodate that ?

Shitty for needing someone who was t a liar and could give the level of care our Ds needed ? If that’s shitty then so be it !

Especially given the poster above, I'm pretty sure majority of them are justified in doing so.

But you did sack her because she was pregnant, you said so yourself in your first post. You seemed quite happy to say so too and proud that you'd "caught her".

I understand you wanted stability etc for your child, but sadly that isn't guaranteed regardless of who you employ. Heaven forbid someone you employed got sick or needed to care for a dying parent or, possibly, had a child with SEND themselves who occasionally needed support.

It also is irrelevant that she volunteered the information herself.

You sacked a woman for being pregnant. Shitty and illegal.

And also you said she tried to sue you. Presumably for sex discrimination. So what lies did you tell to not be sued? Because youve just openly said you sacked her for being pregnant.

Also, you have no idea of the circumstances of her pregnancy @Removingthehat - it may have been unplanned. Firing her as you did was a shitty thing to do, as well as illegal - and that you're hiding behind another 'reason' is so immoral.