How to deal with bank holidays in nanny contract?

[Mozzer123]

Hello

Hoping someone might be able to advise me on how to deal with the trickly issue of bank holidays in my part-time nanny's contract. Just putting the contract together for a lovely nanny who is starting with us next month ( Yipeee!).

I'm not sure how to cover off bank holidays in the contract, and I want everything to be clear. I have just started back at work and the contract they have given me was very unclear, so am very conscious of dealing with this properly. As she is going to be working 2 days a week, I have worked out that her entitlement is 12 days inclusive of bank holidays. The pain is that she works Monday ( like I do obviously) which means you end up taking a greater proportion of time to cover bank holidays than if you didn't work a Monday. How shall I deal with this in the contract? Obviously I am not going to need her to work bank holiday mondays. Shall I say that she will be required to use this allowance against the bank holidays? Struggling with how to word this...In that case as well, how should I deal with the 50% holidays of our choosing, and 50% of her choosing thing in terms of the bank holidays? Does me stipulating we don't want her to work bank holidays come out of my own choosing allowance? I'm also conscious that the poor woman is going to end up with hardly any holiday days because of all these Mondays. How I wish I wasn't working Mondays!

I hope someone can untangle what I am asking here....not articulating it very well.

:-)

I'm a nanny myself and have had problems with holidays. There is a nanny agency www.tinies.co.uk that can help with the workings out of contracts. I'm not sure if you have to register for their services tho.
Hope this helps.

Thanks donkir, I'm keen to pick my way through by myself but if I get stuck will take a look. Thanks :-)

How do bank holidays work in your own contract? When I was doing this in my nanny's contract I just replicated what mine says to make sure we'd both be in the same situation.

If you don't need her on bank hols then fine (my office is closed on bank hols so I couldn't work but I'm still required to take a day's holiday) but if she gets those days off for "free" she will want to use them another time. On the other hand if you get those days "free" as well that might not bother you as you will have extra holiday to cover those days anyway.

Thanks Mrs teddy.... I'm in the same boat as you, I will need to take holiday out of allowance for those days. I'm trying to replicate, but be fair in terms of making sure she can at least take a proper holiday when she chooses. Because of the number of Mondays, it could all end up a bit messy. It's a bit of a stumbling block which hadn't occured to me when I agreed to do Mondays.

Have you spoken to her about it? Its unlikely she would want to work bank holidays anyway.

However, since you're writing the contract you can put what you like.
Something like....12 days holiday per annum (this includes bank holidays). You would not normally be required to work on a bank holiday. Out of the remaining leave - 50 % of holiday time can be at your chosing and 50% at our chosing. Additional unpaid leave also be granted.
You are required to give 6 week notice for any holiday.

Thanks Karoleann... your wording much better than mine. :-)

Obviously I am not going to need her to work bank holiday mondays.

Why? Will you ALWAYS be off on BH Mondays, or could your work ask you to go to work those days?

Shall I say that she will be required to use this allowance against the bank holidays?

Yes. You are able to dictate when holidays are taken.

In that case as well, how should I deal with the 50% holidays of our choosing, and 50% of her choosing thing in terms of the bank holidays?

What's this 50% thing. As the employer you get to dictate when any holiday is taken. There is no right to an employee choosing 50% of the holidays.

Does me stipulating we don't want her to work bank holidays come out of my own choosing allowance?

You could do it such that the nanny only gets to choose 50% of the days that remain after deducting the bank holidays.

Struggling with how to word this.

Yes, wording it is going to be tricky.

First you need to be very clear as to what your requirements actually will be - would they ever need to work on a BH Monday? Would they ever need to work if a BH fell on the other day they work (this can happen, as some holidays change day of the week, such as Boxing Day).

I like the wording Karolann has given you. You could have that in the contract but then document a discussion as and when necessary to confirm exactly which bank holidays they are not required to work that year.

Thanks NannyNick- have adapted Karoleann's wording and have also increased holiday to 13 days which means that there should be 8 days or equivalent to 4 full weeks left after taking the 5 bank holidays away. Have sent a vast email to the nanny highlighting this... I am very keen to have things be clear and transparent from the outset, as my own employers have left me dazed and confused. ! ...

I wouldn't be required to work a bank holiday because of the type of work I do.

If I could add a suggestion, what we have done with our nanny is tried to agree holidays at the start of the year. I appreciate that this isn't always possible for everyone, but what we've tried to do is when we take our "big" holidays (a week or more) plan those at the start of the year so we all know about them and then nanny tries to co-ordinate with us. To be honest this kind of forward planning is good for us because otherwise we end up never taking all our holiday!

Doesn't always work (this year is a big birthday for our nanny so she wants a couple of weeks off to have a nice holiday and I'm taking parental leave to cover it - I know I'm lucky to be able to do that) but it does help. Fortunately our nanny is lovely and appreciates that she is often given "extra" time off (like next week in half term my mum is coming so she has an extra day off) and she is then happy to work a bit more at other times.

In our contract I think we put something like "the parties will use reasonable endeavours to discuss and agree holiday periods for the year by 10 January in each calendar year". I think this helps to make it clear for everyone but it does require goodwill on both sides to make it work.

our nanny working M, Tu, W gets 15 days holiday plus the bank holidays. (statuatory minimum is 17 days holiday inclusive of bank holidays). That way she gets 5 weeks holiday, like us. If a bank holiday falls in a holiday week chosen by us or her, it goes toward the 15 day pool, avoiding her ending up with more holiday weeks than we can accomodate.

Basically she gets all bank hols off, but you knock a pro rata proportion off her holiday allowance to make up for it, since strictly speaking, if she works 2 days a week, she is only entitled to 2/5 of bank hols. So knock a proportion of her annual leave allowance, then state in her contract that her holiday is x days plus all bank hols.

That's what we've done with ours.

I work 3 days a week, so does the nanny, so I've given her the same holiday allowance that I get from my employer. That's the easiest way of working it out.

I currently work mon and tue. Initially my employer agreed to split 50:50 hols but then didn't want me to work or pay me for bank hols. They suggested I could take out of my allowance (didn't want to do that 'cos would leave me without sufficient full weeks off for going away (i also work elsewhere)) or that I could have them unpaid via being paid less/hour overall but paying bank hols- but I didn't like the feel of reducing my hourly rate.

We negotiated something inbetween: something similar to paying/considering bank hols pro rata rather than being stuck with the fact they mostly occur on Mondays. In practice it means being paid for Christmas and new year bank hols. as mutual 'choice' and giving me an extra week 'choice' but that I need to allocate at start of year (so not 50:50).

Because you are at contract stage all these things are flexible and doesn't have to come out 'your allowance' because you haven't yet agreed what that will be. Something you are both comforatble with will work best.

Perhaps nanny could 'earn' extra bank hol day pay for every year she works for you?

Previous family used to take advantage of bank hols and do fun things with friends and husband while I had the children, as she was with them the rest of week anyway.