Nanny Maternity Cover and Retention

[Linnetgirl]

I'm looking for a bit of advice.

I am about to start my own maternity leave and our nanny has managed to secure herself a maternity cover for another family which more or less coincides with my maternity leave. The plan is for her to return to us at the end of my maternity leave/the maternity cover and return to her usual hours of work.

Our nanny will not be out of pocket during this time but her days/times of work will change slightly whilst she is working for the other family. She has asked for a retention sum from us, I have asked a few agencies about this but haven't been able to find out whether this is normal, how much it would be etc.

Any help would be most gratefully received!

I think she's being quite sensible asking for a retainer to c

I think she's being quite sensible asking for a retainer to cover what she would lose if at the end of maternity leave you decided not to go back to work, so whatever the notice period would be maybe?

I think its very sensible of nanny. In fact if I was in nannies position I'd sign a contract for ML period stating notice period as well in case you do change your mind about going back.

Very sensible, I suggest the notice period or a months salary whichever is the greater.

I think she is very wise. There seems to be nothing to guarantee that you will re-employ her following your maternity leave. Therefore the retention pay is a way of keeping the job ongoing, so to terminate the job you need to give the notice that would usually apply (so as per what is in the written statement/contract). It also keeps continuity of employment, which may be lost if there is a big gap between two periods of employment by the same employer.

How much to pay, tricky to know. Probably do a percentage of their usual salary. Perhaps aim it below Employers NICs threshold (Under £148 a week I think) if you feel she would agree to that, as then you won't have any employers NICs, though I think you will still need to do monthly payroll as you have an existing PAYE scheme. Are you using a payroll service, if so ask them about what figure you can pay without paying too much in taxes, what happens about reporting figures to HMRC, can you stop the PAYE scheme or does it have to keep going, all those sorts of things.