Bank Holiday Pay?

[HKDMaternityNanny]

Quick question re bank holidays. I currently work as Maternity Nanny/Nurse, working 24hrs a day, 5 days a week. I invoice and am self employed. No contract, as agency advised due to it being a temporary job this isn't the norm. However I am thinking I should have.

The family are beyond wonderful and I love my job.

Just wondering as I invoice to their accountant, and I decide my rates technically as I am self employed. Is it reasonable for me to charge double time for Bank holiday Good Friday for Easter, and also would you charge more for the Saturday, or is this not technically a bank holiday? I have Monday off and work Sunday mornings?

My current plan is to either mention it to the mum today, or drop her an email (we often email) as I dislike discussing money. Although I could just invoice it, but I feel it is polite to mention it beforehand. I know they would rather pay me than me have a day off in lieu.

Many thanks for any advice. I have asked my agency, but its nice to know others opinions too.

I do not think it is reasonable in your situation, as when you took the booking on you knew what dates were involved. If there has been an extension to the booking then at the time of the extension being agreed you would have looked at the dates (or should have).

You are self employed and dictate the terms, so you should have given the client a contract/agreement. Not sure why an agency would say not to give one, or why you are even discussing such things with an agency, as they are just putting you in touch with someone wanting your service, not determining the terms of any agreement between you and your client.

If you had decided that working on bank holidays would be at extra fee before you took on this client, and the client was given terms of business which clearly stated that fees for bank holidays, easter day, would be different then that's fine.

Saturday is a normal day, so no difference there.

What you agree with your client is between you and your client, though I do feel you need to agree things BEFORE they happen.

Thank you, I appreciate your feedback. I am unsure why I was advised regarding the contract, will have a chat with them. Technically it was a nanny role of 3 months 24hrs a day. It changed to 5 months, and now a 9 month position. They pay a monthly fee to the agency and the agency calls me to see how things are etc... They have said I should get double pay or time off in lieu.

Will have a chat with the mum and see what her view is. I do however see what you are saying and thank you for your reply it was very helpful.

I think you should be getting double pay, definitely. Ideally these issues would have been discussed and agreed at the beginning- but we all live and learn! If there's no contract in place and this issue hasn't been agreed then you are being perfectly reasonable to raise the issue and see what response you get. It depends how strongly you feel about the issue, if the mum doesn't seem keen, maybe just let it go, and learn in the future to put this as one of your t&c's. I think it's a reasonable request and she'll probably be fine with it.

9 months in the position, that's unusual for a maternity nurse isn't it? You invoicing it, so doing it as self employed but I presume they are your only client - you do not have much time to fit anything else in! So is it legitimate self employment? Are you calling the shots, or are they?

Raise the pay issue with them today, see how they react. Decide what you want and decide if you are in a position to say NO you don't want to work say Easter Sunday morning. However, you may well not mind working over the Easter period, so you may need to put it down to experience, learn that such things need to be included in t&c's.

Maybe a good time to give them some t&c's, or suggest that they make you an employee if they want to dictate the terms.

As a maternity night nanny I charge double for bank holidays but have signed a contract (agency one) for time and half if required to work and emailed the dad and said aug bank hol if I worked the sun night it would be 6hrs (from midnight - 6am) of a bank hol and did they still want me to work - they hadnt considered it but were fine about it as it turns out I didnt work it as the mon-fri night nanny ended up swapping days with me that week and I did thurs/fri.