Nanny pay for bank holidays

[MummyLeg]

We have just employed a fantastic nanny and everything is going really well. She only works for us on Mondays, but we don't need her on bank holidays (which will equate to quite a lot through the course of a year). She is asking if she can have these as paid leave, which I can understand from her point of view. From our point of view, that's a lot of paid holidays through the year though. I was wondering about asking if she could work a day in lieu or organising something pro rata. Do you think this would be acceptable?

How much leave did you say they could have?

Working one day a week, legal minimum would be 5.6 days holiday per day.
In 2015 there are 5 bank/public holidays which are on a Monday, so that would use up nearly all their holiday entitlement.

If you need them to work on a bank holiday it is reasonable for you to tell them that. There is no right to have a bank holiday off work, it is down to individuals to come to an agreement on that - such as by using annual leave to cover those days.

Working a day in lieu may not work, they may have other work on the days you do not employ them. If that works for you and them, then it's certainly something to discuss.

She is at least requesting this with a lot of notice. The next Bank Holiday Monday is on 6th April 2015. So she is not being unreasonable in requesting to take annual leave, though may be worth sitting down with a diary and working out if there are any other times she may not want to work, or you don't want her to work, such as between Xmas and New Year.

As you don't want them to work on Bank Holiday Monday's then you are dictating the vast majority of their annual leave. Whilst that is allowed, it is not good for employer:nanny relations. Often people try to give nanny some choice about when they have time off, such as 50:50, though it is not always possible.

Are bank holiday Mondays going to be the only days you don't need nanny to work? There could be other Mondays as well such as if you go on a Summer Holiday, if you take time off over Xmas.

Have you got a written statement (contract) yet? Holiday entitlement and how it will work is usually put in that document. So refer to that if it exists and it it does not, then this is a good time to create it. Gov.uk : Written Statement

We have said 5.6 days annual leave so I agree for her point of view it is unacceptable to use all her annual leave for this. From our point of view though, it would double her paid holidays as she only works Mondays so it's a tricky one and I really don't want to upset her as she's fantastic. I will see what she thinks about working a day in lieu and go from there

Yes, I would give her the options;
so she would have 6 days paid holiday a year, usually 3 of these would be your choice and three her choice. Your choice would usually be your 3 weeks annual holidays maybe +1BH her choice may be two other weeks +1BH.
That leaves 3 BH (not that many), you can give her the option of it being unpaid or working time in lieu (babysitting or an extra day) or working it.

We had a Monday/Thursday nanny at one stage and we did a combination of the above. She was with us for three years and she did decide to work a bank holiday occasionally. We did a few lovely things, we went to the races one year, had lunch at Le Manior aux quat saisons (which is very good value for a lunch menu on a bank holiday), furniture shopping and I remember DH taking me out for a lovely day at Brighton. Having no parents nearby it was a lovely luxury.

I have a Monday/Tuesday nanny and I specify leave as 4 weeks plus bank holidays. There are always 4 Monday Bank Holidays in the year (Easter Monday, 2 in May and one in August), so she gets a minimum 12 days (thus meeting the legal minimum of 11.2)

Maximum extra paid leave is two days extra, if Christmas Day and New Year's Day are a Monday, or one extra if Boxing Day is a Monday. Good Friday is never on a Monday and clearly Xmas and Boxing Day can't both be. I don't think that's a huge amount and it just comes with the territory of a part time nanny who works on a Monday.

I choose two weeks and she chooses two. I think if you're going to specify less than four weeks of non BH leave you may have trouble recruiting/retaining a nanny and you would certainly need to let them choose a higher percentage, which may also result in you having to pay extra when you go away.

I have a Mon plus 2 other days nanny. She has 5 weeks' paid leave (15 days) which we work out between us, plus all bank holidays. That's what I get so I don't see why she should have less.