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!

You can't sack someone because they are pregnant. It's a protected characteristic so illegal.

Yes that’s fair. I was going PT anyway we would have kept her on if she had sorted out her timekeeping as well

I don’t care what your pathetic excuse is. You and your husband are entirely in the wrong and I hope that at some point when you most need it that you receive as little sympathy and accommodation as you have to your poor Nanny.

Why are they shitty people? If I were hiring a nanny to look after my kids, I want someone who can be 100% present and productive. Pregnancy brings a lot of unknowns into the situation. Unexpected appointments, time off, morning sickness etc. I’m hiring a nanny because I need that support. Do I hire another nanny to fill in when this pregnant nanny is unavailable ? Why do I have to deal with the consequences of someone’s personal choices?

Certain jobs are not suitable for pregnant women. As an employer, I have a right to choose who I employ.

We were able to say we didn’t know, she hadn’t told us it was only because I’d seen her. At that time I was just thinking of Ds and we decided to sack her for the other reasons mentioned. She tried to say she had told us about her pregnancy but we were able to honestly say that wasn’t the case we had given her written warnings about the lateness as well and it was true that I was going PT so it went in our favour . I’m not proud of it I’m just showing there’s sometimes another side to things and she was deceitful

Unlike most people on here I don't blame you, I would have done the same.
You had to put your child first and if she was pg then she was not going to be as effective, its not like you were a large company who had someone who could cover her Mat leave so you would have been looking for a Temp or replacement within a matter of months

god, this is disgraceful.

Wow - such awful behaviour on your part. If you were in salaried employment would you be happy to be fired because your employer thought you were pregnant?

no, but women can't play the pregnancy card to avoid being sacked either. Contrary to what some people believe.

@Removingthehat Funny you are so against her 'lying',when that's exactly what you did!

Maybe she thought she wouldn't be able to fall pregnant, maybe it wasn't a lie at all.

Awful for admitting what you did so smugly!

Er no you don't not for protected characteristics. You have to act within in the law. I think this thread shows why many employers of nannies are being sued!

What are you being sued for?

and she was deceitful

You were far more deceitful and you have no idea of her circumstances and you seem pretty pleased with yourselves over it considering that you’ve pretty much boasted about it all over this thread.

So you lied?

Sacking someone because they are pregnant is not cool.

She was late multiple times and I was going PT so no, we didn’t lie. We just decided rather than waiting we would sack her once I’d seen her at the hospital as knew it would be impossible once she had formally told us of her pregnancy.

Seriously @Removingthehat you honestly believe that you simultaneously fired her because she was pregnant but that wasn’t the reason, don’t you? That’s quite some knot you’ve tied yourself in to. It is very clear that you fired her purely because she was pregnant, and that you think that because you got away with it, that’s ok.

It was 8.5 years ago now , I only posted as people don’t always see both sides of things like this

But that wasn't the case. In this case the nanny was sacked because she was at the maturity unit with a folder. She might have been pregnant, she might have had a miscarriage in recent months, she may have been having an abortion. This is exactly the type of case the unfair dismissal rules are there to protect. What if you were sacked because you put on a bit of weight and happened to be sick a few mornings and the employer decided you might be pregnant. It is horrible behaviour.

If you are a good employer and followed employment law then you've nothing to worry about.

Which jobs do not require their staff to be 100% present and productive? I bet you’d have had something to say if your employer had sacked you due to the uncertainties involved in you being pregnant.

There is a particular horror in women who are/have recently been pregnant thinking it’s ok to sack others for exactly the same thing.

You’re correct - absolutely. But we didn’t lie we used the real circumstances and she wasn’t aware we knew of her pregnancy at that point. She tried to say we did know but there was zero proof of that as she hadn’t. The proof there was showed repeated warnings about lateness and the proof that I was going down to 4 days a week

I wonder if the Nanny was sacked because of pregnancy.........OP has gone v quiet.........

Shameful behaviour by you and completely illegal.

If I hadn’t known she was pregnant I’d probably have persevered with the warnings about lateness but once we knew we just thought it would be so disruptive for Ds to get more attached to her and her being unable to carry him etc that we decided to act immediately