Unwaged au pair

[Gusthetheatrecat]

I was doing some research about possible future childcare options and came across this:
www.gumtree.com/p/live-in-nanny-jobs/fantastic-part-time-live-in-nanny-mother-s-help-au-pair-job-in-sw-london-east-sheen-near-richmond-/1098932082
My jaw is on the floor at the sheer, brazen, cheek of it. Effectively they are asking for an au pair (or a nanny, arguably) but for precisely zero pay.
I am so outraged that I needed to share.
Also, seriously though, they are really looking to exploit someone and I feel like I should report them to someone but I don't know who?

I hope the person they've chosen is an undercover reporter!

I think you'd need 3+ examples or the employers to turn out to be high profile to place the story Minty. Sadly.

I'd love to see this in the Daily Mail! She sent me a self entitled reply saying that it enabled applicants to do internsips etc. and she has recruited a "Super Kiwi" girl for the job. ( do people realy talk like that?)

I employed a nanny myself when my 2 sons were little ( now 20's) and I paid 300 pw net, car, separate cottage in garden and board even then - rural Gloucestershire - and I paid extra for babysitting. I think childcare shold be a genuine and valued employment, nut just scraps of the table of well off people who would rather keep their income for themselves. I feel sorry for the children.

It is strange isn't it, that your children are your most precious responsibilities yet some people just look for the cheapest option - often people who can afford to pay more. To me choosing childcare is like getting a tattoo - the cheapest price is not the deciding factor.

I really expected this to be proper Central London - which would make it great for someone who writes or works a couple of days a week - if I was single/young that is exactly the thing I would do to get the chance to live in central london for a year. I'd get a job in a coffee shop for 2/3 days and spend the rest of the time enjoying myself.

But East Sheen is half an hour away - and with no job you couldn't afford the bloody Oyster card

My thoughts exactly Laurie.
Lovely area for a family but not for a young person who wants to experience London. It will be too costy to commute to london.

She is full of herself, it is funny. I can not see anything erm very unique about their life.
Can someone tell her that most families have a roast sometimes?
I mean i am not much into cooking, we are not financially comfortable, we are not a unique lol family and.....we have roasts!

Amazing how arrogantsome people are!

It would be very interested to hear from the 'happy' former au pairs!

The ad is gone! I can't help thinking that this 'super kiwi' (if in fact she exists) will arrive, look around her wondering where on earth East Sheen is, and then will only need to meet one or two nannies or au pairs in order to understand precisely how totally she is being taken advantage of.
It is arresting, though, to think of 50 people applying for something like this. I can't help hoping they are people who applied for everything on gumtree, and didn't realise it was unpaid, not people who are desperate enough to think it really was an opportunity and not just modern day slavery dressed up in a 'we're so lovely!' advert.

I suppose you get what you don't pay for.

OK FOLKS! I emailed her and she replied to me! This is what she said:

Thank you for your concern. In hindsight, I should not have tagged au pair onto my job description as that obviously has a very specific job description and, when we require a traditional au pair, I will happily appoint one under the government guidelines.

I can assure you that our offer of board & lodging in exchange for 22 hours' nanny work per week is based on sound calculations of the difference in pay between live-in & live-out nannies. We have employed live-in nannies, the first was paid £300 per week net (in addition to board & lodging) to look after 1 child full-time (3 years ago). Given that a comparable daily rate for a live-out nanny would have been £100 per day, it would seem a logical conclusion that you could say that live-in nannies work 2 days per week for board & lodging and the other 3 days for standard pay.

We have already successfully had a part-time Spanish nanny on the same conditions as we are currently advertising. She used her 3 free weekdays to do an internship in Central London that resulted in a full-time job after 6 months & allowed her to fulfil her ambition of securing a job in London commensurate with her graduate status.

We do not view ours as a 'classic' au pair job as we do not expect our nanny to be available 5 days a week for our family, as is the case for au pairs, she will be able to take on another part job as our hours will be on only 2-3 days, to be agreed with her. Nor do we expect up to two nights per week babysitting. We need a babysitter only once or twice per month.

We have had more than 50 applications for this position, including many from people who would like to combine it with supply teaching, Masters studies etc. Our position offers excellent value compared to earning the minimum wage: 22 hours' work at minimum wage would pay you £143 per week gross. I would be interested to know if you can find anywhere in a safe, green, pleasant part of London where you can rent a delightful double room, pay all your bills & buy food to last a whole week for £143. Our first nanny was paying £650 PCM to share a grotty house in Hammersmith when her contract finished with us and she decided to live-out and do supply teaching, that was before bills and food expenses.

You might also like to note that organisations such as Workaway view 5 hours' work per day, 5 days a week, as a fair deal in exchange for board & lodging.

We have no intention of being exploitative of our nannies. We are offering a genuine chance to become part of our family and have free time to do another job or pursue studies. We had a very strong field of applicants and a super Kiwi girl will join our family shortly.

I have emailed her the link to this thread...be interesting if she shows up....

We do not view ours as a 'classic' au pair job

I bet you don't, dear

I guess the minimum wage offset doesn't apply if you just assure the government that you are offering 'a lovely opportunity'
By the same reckoning, I suppose if you lived in a really expensive bit of London you could get someone to work for you all day every day, and still have to pay you money for the privilege of being their live-in skivvy?!
So awful.

'for the privilege of being your live-in skivvy' I mean. Gah. Too outraged to type!
It's the blithe assumption that she must be above the law, simply by virtue of being middle-class that gets me. As if legal requirements are grubby, tawdry things that don't hold weight if you live in a nice house.

Pirate
Is she coming here? I want the recipe for her very special roast!

I worked for board & lodging on a farm in NZ (so opposite way to this). It was only for about 5 weeks though (& they gave me cash at the end - as they said I'd worked hard - like most NZ farmers they were broke though).

It was fine, but I wouldn't have wanted to do more than a month really - would have run out of cash as well. (Was in the middle of nowhere do nothing to spend it on).

I helped cook the yummy roasts.

I like the way she contrasts "green, pleasant" East Sheen with "grotty" Hammersmith. At least Hammersmith is in bloody London.

I had to double check this ad cos I was convinced it was going to be the people I worked for in my very first nanny job (in East Sheen). I worked 60h a week, 6 days a week for an entire year except for the odd (unpaid of course) bank holiday. If I asked to leave 10 min early for a special event I had to add it on to the next day (mum didn't work). I was told I wasn't entitled to any annual leave in the year I worked for them as I'd gone on holiday with them for 2 weeks. During which time I worked every day and got no extra money. Their kids are a bit older now so I wouldn't have been surprised if it was them. Seems East Sheen is just a hotbed of exploitation!

I did the calculations and I think people are being a bit unfair. I appreciate this is not an au pair role but for the right person it can work really well. As long as the hours are those stated.

I would have thought this would be more fair if they were only asking 10-12 hours a week, but 22 hours a week whether it be over 2-3 days OR 5 is more like au pair hours where they would get board/meals and about £70 per week 'pocket money'

grandma
did you not realise that au pairs get board, lodging AND a modest salary too? There is no reason whatsoever why Mr and Mrs Smug from East Sheen should think their childcarer doesn't need paying!

I have an au pair and pay her correctly. I'm saying if this particular mum rewords the advert and doesn't write au pair, there could be people interested.

I calculated it by adding up cost of food, rent, bills, Internet, line rental etc. Then dividing this by 100 hours per month. I personally wouldn't do this and I give my au pair weekly pocket money.However, I think the arrangement advertised can be mutually beneficial, if the childcarer is not exploited. And the hours are respected.

It's not the norm I agree, but it doesn't work out as less than minimum wage if you offset cost of living.

Awful, awful, awful, awful.

I grew up in east sheen. Take away the property prices and it is just a pleasant but ordinary suburb of London with more cars than parking spaces. Richmond park is of course lovely, but it's no more lovely than it was before house prices went mad.

It may be 30 mins from waterloo, but how are you going to get there if you have no money?.

Whatever the cost of their house, they are still just offering her a room. I au paired in the centre of Paris, somewhere far more glamourous than east sheen - nobody said "ah but this is paris! You cannot want money - surely your reward is paris itself!" - and that was pretty much next to the louvre.

I think in comparison this au pair will find sheen lane centre with its library and community activities rather underwhelming.

22 hours' work at minimum wage would pay you £143 per week gross. I would be interested to know if you can find anywhere in a safe, green, pleasant part of London where you can rent a delightful double room, pay all your bills & buy food to last a whole week for £143.

1. nannying is not supposed to be a minimum wage job.
2. this family are still just offering a room in east sheen. Property prices may have increased, but a room in east sheen is just a room in east sheen, whether it is 1974, 1998 or 2015.

Au pairs work 30 hrs and should receive £70-£85 per week and board and lodgings. 22/30 x £70 = £51/week pocket money.

(Whether you live in east sheen, hammersmith, Buckingham palace or on the moon).

Seems no one noticed a different gumtree ad were employers are asking for a pair of au pair to do childcare and clean their house AND work in their pub and spend a couple of hours a day cleaning the pub. I was horrified when I read that. Think it was £90-100 a week. That's an awful thing to ask if you ask me