newbie! mother help holiday pay, bank holiday, job abandonment questions

[whitewine]

ok, I am new here, but have found some great information on this board, so I decided to join!
I have 3 kids (6,5,2) and am looking to hire a Mother's Help.
Questions:

• do I have to pay 4 weeks holiday AND bank holidays? or can bank holidays count towards holiday time?
• What do you when the help comes up with a "family emergency" they must tend to immediately. Do they get the time off w/o pay? Do you hold the job? I want to be sympathetic; but not taken advantage of. My last regular help was an au pair (paid 135 for 25 hours work with taxes). She lasted 4 mos. The final straw was she received a phone call that her mother was in the hospital in Poland on a Monday.... DH&I had a business trip which we were depending on her for Thurs night.... thankfully we had hired a weekend nanny to work fri-sun. Rather than get the details of her mother's condition... she said she had to go! So she left that day. I did pay for her transport/plane ticket as an advance. After a few days (and finding her mother was ok); I let her know she no longer had a job - that way she would stay in Poland as long as she needed to for her mother. Fast forward.... last week... I had hired a mother's help thru an agency. Waited for her to start. She showed up an hour late and then after 2 hours on the job SHE got a phone call that her mother had been in an accident. I haven't heard from her since (6 days ago). Last I spoke to the agency, they hadn't heard from her. I do believe her story - have tried calling/texting... no response. We really aren't a bad family. I am not highly demanding... I just don't get it. Any input would be appreciated.

I was a nanny if this helps... I had four weeks paid hol which excluded bank holidays but then my boss didn't have me working on Monday's so they were very far and few between.

I would say because she hasn't had the decency to let you know then not to keep her job open- what do the agency say? I know her mum might be really ill but I lost my mum while nanying and had two weeks off (paid, although I had been there a long time) and rang in every couple of days to let my boss know. It's only fair. I would maybe consider without pay if they are new but i'm not too sure what obligations you actually have by law, maybe the agency would tell you that.

I've taken this from the nannytax.co.uk website.

'All employees in the UK are entitled by law to four weeks (twenty days) paid leave every year. The four weeks can include all bank holidays but not extra public holidays. This entitlement now begins from the first day of employment but cannot be taken until it has been accrued (e.g. one day's holiday after thirteen days work). '

We have a nanny, and have had one day where she had a family emergency - we told her to take the time off - she rang back at lunchtime to say that everything was 'stable' and could she come back to work, and she took the time as part of her holiday.

In your situation i would be asking the agency for a new mother's help! Whatever has happened she should at least keep you informed. Good luck.

It will depend on if your employee lives at your home, or if they live-out. Live-in employees have very few employment rights, while live-out employees have the same employment rights as you would working for a company in the UK.

An employee is entitled to 4 weeks PAID holiday per year. ACAS Holiday Entitlement

Bank Holidays can be included within the holiday period, however if you will be doing that, it should be made very clear at the recruitment stage, and put very clearly in the written contract. More information on Holiday Entitlement

All employees have a right to time off for a family emergency. See Right to Time Off It is time off WITHOUT pay. Not sure how long you have to keep the job open for, perhaps best to add a clause to contract which permits it for say a max period of a month.

Sounds like you have had a run of bad luck with your previous employees. I'm sure not all hired help is like this. Would advise that you check references yourself, even if an agency say they have done it already, so you can try to establish what the candidates past sickness/time-off record was like.