Nanny is pregnant. Maternity Pay?? What to do now??

[ziopin]

Hi, my nanny has just announced she is pregnant. Her baby will be due in August, but I was hoping to let her go in July, as my daughter will be starting full time school in September.

Does anybody know about maternity rights/pay etc?

I still need some part time childcare for my son and also school runs, should I ask her to stay on at reduced pay/hours? or maybe employ a childminder or au pair?

Please, any guidance appreciated.

Thanks

How long has she worked for you?

You can make her redundant when she is pregnant. But, you can not make her redundant BECAUSE she is pregnant. As you were genuinely already planning this, I think you are covered. You can obviously demonstrate that as a child is heading off to school you no longer require a nanny.

You do have to give her mat. leave/pay. But, I think the gov't will pay you back for it.

I think you should approach her informally and explain your intentions and ask her if she would be interested in the revised hours. But, of course, she will be on maternity leave when they begine. So you will need to hire someone on a fixed term contract to cover her mat. leave.

Remember that if you make her redundant, you can not hire another nanny for a certain period -- a year maybe? Look on tiger.gov.uk for the exact time.

The DTi produce a booklet for Employers and Employees called Maternity Rights. Right click this link - Maternity Rights to download as PDF.

As you are not intending to have a nanny when your daughter is at full-time school, make your nanny aware of this now... so that when it comes up later, she can't say she didn't know that contract would be terminated in the summer.

As you only have one employee, you automatically select them for redundancy, so I don't see that the rules regarding selection for redundancy due to being pregnant will apply. You have no one else to make redundant!
ACAS have a helpline which may be worth a call just to confirm this... 08457 474747

If your nanny decides to leave your employment shortly after being told that her job would cease come your daughter starting school, then that's her choice to leave. You can always recruit a new nanny on a temporary contract, or change to other forms of childcare.

The document from the DTI (see above) is well worth a read, so you know more about maternity rights. It is rather long!