Nanny holiday. Is this fair?

[bettina46]

I've been working as a nanny for my present family for over 3 years and my contract finishes at the end of this month. We always counted my holiday entitlement from August to July because I started work in August some time ago. From August 2014 I haven't asked my bosses for a holiday but they were away 1 week in October and I was off then. I asked MB if I could work to the end of March and then have 1 week holiday paid and she said yes. Very sadly my father died in February and I had to go to the funeral abroad so I got I week off. MB said she stopped my payments and payslips with the last week of March and obviously I wil not have my 1 week holiday paid now. Is this fair?

Do they owe you any holiday?

You have had one week off paid?
What does your contract say? 2 weeks off paid to be taken when the family doesn't need you?
I'm sorry for your loss, but it seems that your employer is counting your week off paid to travel in February as your holiday entitlement?

I should have 4 weeks off between August 2014 and July 2015. I had 1 week off in October when the family were away and I asked for 1 week at the end of my employment. I could not have predicted I had to go to a funeral. But yes houseofnerds, my employer is counting my week off paid to travel in February as your holiday entitlement. I'm not sure if that is fair because my husband who works in the office got some additional time of work for his mother's funeral apart from holiday entitlement.

Most employers go over and above the legal requirement following a death which it sounds like your husbands company does unfortunately yours don't. Legally you would have been entitled to that time off as unpaid leave. It is also unlikely you would be entitled to that full weeks holiday pay as there is still 4 months of your holiday year left so you would only qualify for 2/3 of this years entitlement.

Posted too soon,

Sorry for your loss

So it's your holiday from 1st August until 31st March? I think you should get 18.6 days paid in that time, including bank holidays. You've had 10 as holiday and 4 bank holidays, is that right?

Your employer doesn't have to give you paid compassionate leave, but they do still owe you some paid holiday I think.

They can make you take that time as holiday but as you will of work 2/3 of a year you are entitled to 2/3 of your holiday which is 2.7 weeks. You don't say which days you work as you will also be entitled to up to 8 days leave a year which is for bank hold (depending on which days you work) of which there are 4 to come still this year after you leave.

We need to know how many days and which ones you work to be able to tell you how much hol you still have owing to you but yes I would say at least 1/2 a week.

My post was assuming that you take the other 2 weeks at christmas if that is not the case then you would be owed more holiday.

I work 2 days a week only, so my week means 2 days only. I didn't have any time off at Christmas. I worked Christmas Eve and New year's Eve because they were my working days.

Which 2 days do you work, does it ever fall on a bank holiday and if it does what happens? Working 2 days a week you would be entitled to 2/5 of 28 days a year so if you were just given 4 weeks it sounds like you have always been under paid for holidays.

So you are entitled to 11.2 days a year which would prob be rounded up to 11.5 or 12 as can't be rounded down.

So that would be nearly 6 weeks of your working weeks. As we say it does depend what days you work as if you work Monday's then the bank hol in aug would need to be taken off plus poss Christmas Day and New Years day if you work Thursday's and Boxing Day of you work Friday's. So worst case from what you have said so far is you would need to take off a max of two days from the 11.2 for bank hols (or if work mon and weds then you need to take off 4) and then divide what is left by 3 and times by 2 to see how much hol you should be entitled to in the amount of year you have worked.

So if you let us know what other day you work apart from a weds we can work out exactly how much hol a year you should of been having which sounds as if it is not what they have been giving you anyway, unless of course you get more hol than in the contract over a year.

I always work on Tuesdays and Wednesdays and none of my working day was a bank holiday as far as I remember but also my contract says I'm entitled to 8 days holidays a year + all bank holidays.

BTW thank you so much for all your posts. I really appreciate you're helping me with this matter.

They have misapplied the law about holiday pay then, you are entitled to 28 days pro rata they can not say 20 days plus bank holidays when you do not normally work mondays or which ever day the bank holiday falls on. You need to speak to ACAS about this on Monday because it does sound like you are due quite a bit of back holiday pay but they can advise you on this further and how to go about claiming it from your employer

What country are you in? I assume you are in England but you could be elsewhere. If in England then 8 days holiday plus bank holidays would not meet legal requirement, as minimum holiday entitlement in 2014 would be 5.6 weeks - so 11.2 days in your case (2 days x 5.6 weeks). Bank holidays are rarely on a Tue/Wed, so in Aug 2014 to March 2015 none occur on Tue or Wed.

So I make that 7.5 days entitlement (Aug to March) - use the Gov.uk calculator.

Boss away October - uses 2 days
Funeral Feb - uses 2 days

So there remains 3.5 days which can be paid with the last payroll run, thus giving you nearly 2 weeks worth of holiday pay.

Is your query more to do with the February time off? That could be classed as compassionate leave but employers do not have to do so, thus it gets taken as part of annual leave.

Is your employer using a nanny payroll company? If so, then they should be able to sort things out such that you get paid for any holiday entitlement remaining following the job finishing to be paid as part of the last payroll run, along with producing your P45. The P60 will be generated after year end, so likely to be April/May. If you do not have it by June, then chase former employer for that document.

A few years ago we employed a nanny working tue-thur. We had the contract worded to say she would be paid bank holidays meaning if any fell on those days as Boxing Day did that year. Was that unlawful then? Should we have paid her for Monday BHs then? She never queried it either. I though inc BHs meant those that fall on your day of work?

myredcardigan it isn't about paying for bank holidays as such but that you can't include a bank holiday in entitlement if it is not a normal work day so in your situation your nanny would be entitled to 16.8 day paid leave a year, if you only paid her 12 ie 4 weeks by 3 days then yes it was unlawful. A lot of people still think of annual leave as 20 days plus bank holidays but it is 28 days which can include bank holiday if appropriate.

Hi nannynick, my employer uses NannyPaye and I will get P45 and then P60, I'm sure of that. I'm from London and I'm not sure what I can do re remaining holidays. To be honest I'm afraid my boss will get mad if I tell her about what you say and she will not give me good references. On the other hand I thought she would pay me for my 1 week holoday at the end if my employment as it is already booked and she previously agreed to it. During 3, 5 years of working for the family (previously 3 days a week) I was never sick, never asked for additional holiday or odd day off. If the law says the don't need to pay for the compassionate leave that's ok with me. I just needed to know.

BTW I'm a foreigner, EU citizen and legally employed in the UK

Wait, what? Everyone in the UK is entitled to 5.6 weeks of paid holiday per year?
Really?????

www.nidirect.gov.uk/calculating-holiday-entitlement
Houseofnerds this is a good link re statutory holiday in UK

houseofnerds yes every fulltime employee is entitled to 5.6 weeks off a year (based on 5 day weeks) so 28 days in total

and part time workers are pro rated to equal the the same amount (i cant rember the exact figure/caculation i have not been part time for nearly 16 years sorry)

Interesting! Thanks ladies - we aren't in the UK any more and here 2 weeks is the norm. To get to the dizzy heights of 5 weeks off I would have to work for the same company for over twenty years. Maybe I should move back, lol!

Well it isn't really five weeks it is usually four weeks plus all bank hols if you work five days a week. The government changed it from 20 days plus bank hols to 28 days which can include bank hols to protect those people who work part time and may not work mainly Monday's, so if you don't work Mondays which is when most of our bank hols are, you don't miss out on the extra day off as you can take it at another time.

With luck NannyPaye will ask your employer about what leave you have yet to take and add it to the final payroll.

If you end up not being paid for untaken holiday, then I would just move on. The value is a couple of hundred pounds at most probably, so whilst you could take legal action to recover it, personally I would not want to be having the stress and upset of going through court.

As you say, you want to get a good reference and have them act as a reference in future so is causing upset over a couple of owed days worth the stress/upset?

In next job, make sure holiday entitlement is correct at the start and make sure you take it before you resign from the job. Ideally bosses would do things right but having a nanny is for many parents the first time they have an employee, so they do make mistakes. So don't rely on them, keep track yourself of holiday and put in requests for holiday otherwise you may lose out.