Nanny sick pay

[Feelingverysleepy]

Not sure what to do re sick pay. Nanny started Dec 2014 (4 mths) doing just 2 days per wk. She has had to call us back from work once as she was sick (we paid as usual) and this week sick both days. I am having to take unpaid leave to stay at home, her contract states SSP only, but it just doesn't feel right, as I know she is genuinely very sick this week. Would you pay as normal or just stick to contract?

Did she catch the illness from your children ?
I'm a nanny and if it was unrelated to children I would think it fair to be unpaid. However if she caught it from the children I think you should pay.
Eg your children have a vomiting bug and then she catches it.

Thank you. Our children are fine - she has a DS herself who has just started school. He seems to be picking up all the bugs and she catches it from him. I'm actually surprised our DCs haven't picked anything up as she brings her son to ours after school.

My contract is unpaid first 3 days then SSP and I've never paid more than that - if the nanny takes more than a few days off sick, I'll end up taking unpaid leave from work, or paying to cover her, so I need to keep that cash in hand. It's typical in nannying and they have the option to insure against it.

Tricky when nanny has own child as their child may be ill so they say they are

If ssp in contract then say to her that next time she is off sick she won't be paid or ssp only (which kicks in on 4th day)

Having 3 days off in 4mths is awful !!!!

I wouldn't pay, she's had 2 incidences of sickness in a 4 month period, which is quite a lot IMO.

unpaid for 3 days then SSP afterwoods unless caught from the children (aka sickness bug as its totally unfair on the nanny to have to look after really sick children then loss money when she invetably catches said sickness bug)

Btw alot of nannies now request that their contracts include this stipulation

Lose* stupid phone

I would pay if she's genuine. I tend to feel that the kinder and more reasonable any employer is, the more the employees will go the extra mile. There might come a time when you need the nanny to go the extra mile for you, and its better to create goodwill. Of course, this only applies if your nanny is genuinely ill and not a p-taker - you did say that she was genuinely ill. I think that all genuinely ill people, in any line of work, should receive pay so they don't have to worry about paying their bills on top of their illness

I would pay tbh. She could have just been unluckily and ill 3 days since Xmas, then will be fine the next 5 years. As she's only part time it just probably feels more often

I have a full-time NWOC so it's a bit of a double whammy as there are days when her child is too ill for her to take her to work with her.

So - I run an annual sickness allowance, similar to the one my employer offers. First 5 days are paid, thereafter SSP.
If she has 5 days off together or 5 over the year it's irrelevant. Once 5 accrue in a rolling 12 month period, she goes onto SSP for the next 12 months. The same as I do. I don't care if she is ill or her child is, the cut off is 5 days for her to call in sick.

She still has her statutory entitlement to take time off to make arrangements for a dependent. She just doesn't have any alternative child care.

I've never heard of anyone being unpaid for the first 3 days, then SSP.

If she only works 2 days a week and has had 4 days off in 4 months though. I'd only do SSP.

treadsoftly

I've never heard of anyone being unpaid for the first 3 days, then SSP.

That is what is in a standard nanny contract - it's very kind of you to pay more, but the legal minimum is nothing for the first consecutive 3 days then SSP.

Clearly I'm a mug Its not in the standard contract I got from Nannytax, that's for sure though. I thought it was fair to pass on the benefit I get from my own employer. I'm sure that if they were less understanding about my occasional "emergency holiday" days, and I had to take unpaid leave, I'd probably be less generous.

Generally she soldiers on though and only takes leave if her own child is ill which I can understand. I don't particularly want a vomiting child other than my own, in my own home. On principle I think it is deeply unfair not to give proper sick pay if your own children have given a nasty bug to your nanny. One of the main drivers for having a nanny is that you can still go to work if necessary when your own children have something contagious. If you are not going to give "danger pay", then any nanny would be well within their rights not to come in if your children have something contagious which would be passed onto them. It was in the basic set of T's and C's I got from an emergency nanny agency - Temp Nannies would not be supplied to look after children with a contagious illness which could be passed on. End of.

I love that 10 years ago I was really avant garde by insisting in my contract that any bug passed on from children was paid and that now it's standard. You'll have paid this by now OP but next time if you don't want to pay in full then I'd offer half pay and the next would be unpaid. I'd also have the discussion with her now about sick pay and expectations, and point out that so far you've been generous but it's not a contractual right.

That's interesting treadsoftly it was standard in my contract from payefornannies (who are, by the way fantastic and significantly cheaper than nannytax).

When i've paid (despite contract), the nanny took a LOT of single day sickies, so I stopped paying them adn the sickies stopped (it was about one a month).
I've also had a horror of a contract from an agency that I didn't read properly (MY FAULT of course) and hired a nanny with a contract that had full pay for all sickness up to a month, then SSP. Guess how many consecutive weeks sickness she had?! not her fault, but we couldn't afford cover, I couldn't not work, it was chaos

tranmererover you've hit the nail on the head, the problem with paying the first few days is that there is an incentive to not come in with a cough/cold as there's no sanction.

If a nanny of mine was diagnosed with something serious, then if I could possibly afford it I would pay her something over and above the contract. But TBH anything more than a day or two off sick in a year is going to mean me taking unpaid leave from work and things are tight anyway.

We paid our first nanny sick pay even for one day sick. She took more and more single days sick after her probation had ended. It was a nanny share and she was only sick on the day one of the two mums wasn't working. Then my second maternity leave started and she was also sick then as well. Till she left by agreement.....

Since then I have only ever paid SSP. I think we were really unlucky with our first nanny but once bitten twice shy.

I am very rarely sick but have always been paid as a nanny. Working in a crèche no one was given any sick leave as people took advantage. It was in our contracts so everyone knew from the beginning.

What's in her contract?

On the subject on sick pay. If the illness you cought it’s from kids, like stomach bug. You do go in, the family see’s you are ill and you do feel really bad, got ill kids to look after and feeling poorly. If they let you go home that day or early is it fair for them to ask you to work hours back on your day off?

WestLondon17 ....are you employed or self employed? If you are employed you are entitled to sick pay as per guidelines if your self employed you decide what you need to do to keep money coming in....either way I would say you can say no if you don't want to or have other plans....however you got sick. Look at your contract in case there is a clause if there is I would get legal advice and look for a new job.

Thank you Jannier