Advice on holiday pay for nanny please!

[zzhallk5]

Hiya- we're just about to employ a nanny for our 1 yr old and am confused about her holiday pay.

It's a bit complicated as she'll be doing 25-35 hours a week on average for us, but hours will vary as I'm an A&E dr on a part-time rota. So far have established it's the norm to ask them to take half their holiday entitlement when we'd like them to and the other half when they want. However - she'll have approx half the AL that we have, leaving us with potentially 3 weeks of the year that we won't need her.

Is it the norm to pay her for this time as obviously it's our "fault" not hers we don't need her. And if so then at her average weekly wage or at a lesser amount? I wondered if the fact she's working less than full time makes a difference at all as if you're employing someone full time clearly you can't just demand they take unpaid leave but she's not really FT at 30 hours a week I don't think

Thanks for any advice; the agency has been unclear on this and I don't want to be unfair.

Kate

Can you work out a weekly amount of hours and fix it, then pay her overtime if she goes over? So a minimum of 25 hours (or a minimum of 30 and some weeks you lose hours but keep nanny sweet!) That simplifies the hours calculation and in your case it probably is better to stipulate hours of holiday. For the weeks she takes deduct the actual hours not worked, for the weeks you take deduct a 'standard' week.

It's normal to pay her if you take additional holiday - you can't really ask her to take unpaid leave but you can also get her to do things such as sort through toys or clothes, batch cook for the freezer or other things you would like to delegate but would prefer they were done without DC around.

Remember the entitlement is 5.6 weeks pro rata - as she's PT that gives a more accurate calculation than 4 weeks plus bank hols.

Thanks for that- sounds like a sensible way of doing things. By < For the weeks she takes deduct the actual hours not worked, for the weeks you take deduct a 'standard' week > do you mean for eg if the week she's picked to be off if we would have been needing her for 35 hours then call that 35 hours of her AL, whilst if we choose a week where we're saying we don't need her then pay her for our standard 30 hour week?

Now I just need to await my rota to clarify it all - oops, that'll be about 2 days before I start back at work - thanks NHS staffing :)

Just thinking...she'll therefore get her AL entitlement plus, in effect, another 6 days or 3 working weeks a year of fully paid leave -- is that really how most people do things? This scenario must crop up frequently as I'm guessing most people who employ nannies get more than the statutory amount of AL? Not trying to be stingy just wondering! What about eg asking her to take baba for a weekend during the time we're off, would that be a done thing? Sorry for all these questions just finding this nanny thing a myriad of confusion.

As the employer you can dictate when your employee takes annual leave. However it can sour the relationship if there is no ability for the nanny to request leave.

What about eg asking her to take baba for a weekend during the time we're off, would that be a done thing?

Do you mean asking your nanny to take your baby away somewhere, when you have time off? Sounds a bit strange... you don't mean that, do you?

Do you mean that you would like your nanny to work some/all of her usual days in a particular week, even though you are on leave yourself? If you mean that... then yes that is fine.

If you mean to work a weekend so you can go away...well, weekend working is a big ask and usually weekend rates are higher than normal. Plus overnight rates!

If you didn't it midweek then you might be able to negotiate a night away - 36 hours or so - in return for a week of AL, as you seem to have flexible hours. Most people end up paying, though, and most nanny contracts have a clause to cover the eventuality.

I would let her come to work and give her some other child related chores to do. For example, she could:

Tidy toys
Clear out clothes which are too small / out of season
Cook and freeze
Take the baby for a couple of hours (if you want her to)
Run baby related errands (i.e. shop for above cooking)

Am NHS flexible trainee like you, also on shift rota.

Our nanny does 3.5 days per week so that she is always due to work after I have done a night shift.

So I work Mon/Tues/Fri and she also does Weds am so I can work Tues night. We pay her for 42 hrs a week ie full time hours - essentially so that she wouldn't want/need a job on Thursdays and so would stay flexible (which she has).

Any extra leave is just a bonus I'm afraid - our nanny does quite a few days when I am around but that's the only chance I have to do audit and all the non-clinical stuff. You may find you need her so that you can get that kind of thing done.

Hi, I'm also a flexible nhs trainee. Am confused how your nanny gets half the annual leave you do? Our nanny works 25.5 hours per week and therefore gets the legal minimum of 17 days (5.6 weeks pro rata). I work 20-24 hours per week and get 17.5 days annual leave. Not much difference in our leave at all. Our agency had no idea that the law had changed so that everyone is entitled to 5.6 weeks a/l regardless of bank holidays/which days you work.
Also as my days aren't set we advertised for someone prepared to do cleaning/ironing on days I was at home when they were due to work. Every single applicant was happy to do this which surprised me.
Good luck with it all, I had a headache for weeks with it all!