Anyone know what the "official" rule on too much nanny holiday taken is?

[bbcessex]

I've just checked back over last year's holiday records for our nanny... She has taken quite a lot more holiday than her allocation.

I've ballsed up, because I didn't work out holiday acrruing - just gave the full amount as though she'd been with us for a 12 month period. Was a bit naive at the time. Nanny start with us at end of march, and i've given her a full year's allowance.

Now - I totally see that I authorised it, therefore, will just lump it and not make the same mistake again.

I was just wondering what the "official" ruling is though.. would i be allowed to eg say "you owe us a xxx amount of time", or deduct from this year's allowance?

To highlight again - I know I ballsed up and am going to have to lump it, but I'd like to know where I legally stand!

I may be wrong, but don't most roles work on an aniversary date.
If she began in March, the holiday entitlement runs March to March - so 12months from commencement date?
I wouldn't have thought holiday entitlements need to be a calendar year.

Surely you can run the holiday year from March to March, or over any other 12m period, unless the contract states otherwise? May be easiest to coordinate if it is the same as your holiday year though.

I don't think you can deduct it from next years allowance after the fact, but you could agree to that for future absences, eg if she needed an extra couple of days for visiting a dying relative etc.

thanks all.
lesson learned there too; our contract is ambiguous .. it says something like "entitled to 5.6 weeks per calendar year accrued over a 12 month period" - doesn't say when that runs from..

She doesn't have to accrue the holiday before she takes it. But you might be wary of her taking say 3 weeks hols 2 months into the job, because if she left shortly afterwards she would have taken a lot more leave than she was entitled to.

It is good practice to encourage her to spread her leave throughout the year, eg aim to take around a quarter of her leave over each 3 month period for example.

If it doesn't say when it starts from then you choose I would think? Either from anniversary or from April to April with a pro rata allowance for the part year worked.

I think you will just need to accept it. I think it would be most unfair to ask her for some form of repayment in hindsight. Though I also think it would just make more sense to run het holidays in terms of working years opposed to calender years

I don't understand the problem - she started March 2011 and has had all her holiday entitlement by February 2012. That's fine isn't it? Or does she want to take more holiday now before the end of March?

As the contract does not specify a specific date, then I think the holiday year would run from the first day they started working for you. So if they started 20th March, it would run until 19th March with new holiday year starting again on 20th March.

Carrying over holiday I don't think is a good idea generally, though it can be done. Direct.gov - Carrying Over Holidays

Any untaken holiday cannot be exchanged for pay - I think that is the case unless someone is leaving the job in which case there might be special arrangements.

In your situation you are not talking about carrying over holiday but rather that you have give too much. How much of that holiday was taken as the nannies choice - all of it? Maybe some of the time you went on holiday yourself, so the nanny didn't get a choice.

I don't think you can deduct from next years allowance. You could perhaps ask them to do some babysitting in exchange for the extra holiday but that should have been arranged at the time that you authorised the extra holiday. So as things stand I feel you just need to lump it and start afresh next holiday year.

Thanks All.

The holiday taken was 2 weeks specified by us, 3+ weeks specified by the nanny. Effectively, she took it before the end of 2011, and is of the opinion that she has 5.6 weeks for Jan - Dec of this year.

I think what I will say is that her hols year runs from eg 20th march as you said nannynick, so she has 12 months from then...

i will be more clear next time..

Thanks for the input all

Whilst you are telling your nanny that the holiday year runs from their start date, not Jan-Dec, it may be a good time to also put into the diary all the dates you both want booked as holiday at this time. For example, bank and public holidays during 2012/13. Direct.gov: Bank/Public Holidays Table

In case it becomes useful the rule about the anniversary of the start date is taken from S13(3) of the Working Time Regulations 1998.

Thanks MrAnchovy - I looked at the link, but I couldn't work it out!

Sorry, I'll paraphrase for you:

"(3) A worker?s leave year, for the purposes of this regulation, begins?
[subject to certain conditions which are satisfied in your case] on the date on which that employment begins and each subsequent anniversary of that date."

Thank you for that! Does that mean then, that the leave year began on the 20th March, hence the 5.6 weeks hols runs from 20th March to 20th March (sorry to be very dense)..

Exactly that

thanks very much indeed for that MrA - that is very useful information.