nannny contract q - how to word holiday entitlement when she has different term-time and holiday hours?

[hatwoman]

any idea how to do this? My nanny works 3 days a week in term-time, three and a half in the holidays. she gets paid an average - ie the same amount each week. she's entitled to the equivalent of 4 weeks holiday. I've never known her take the odd day - she;s always taken whole weeks. However it does kind of make sense for the contract to be worded in days. (when she was 4 days a week, holiday and term time, it was in her contract as 16 days pa). I don;t mind her talking a 3 and a half-day week off, rather than the 3 day weeks, iyswim. but how do I put all this in writing?

Could you average it (number of days she works in a year/52*5 and then times by 20) to get a number of days (and then round it up to the nearest day)?

I work part-time and my annual leave is calculated in hours - with the number of hours I get calculated as above...ie. I work 0.88 of a full-time post so I get 0.88 times the number of hours of a full-time post as hols.

not sure I follow your sums. but have taken your idea - I did
total number of days worked in a year, divided by 52 gives the average no. of days per week, and times that by 4 to give a number of days leave, which is equivalent to 4 average weeks.does that make sense?

yup should be same answer as mine. Is it about 13 days?

Do you want something exact, based on the days your nanny actually works, or are you prepared to round up a bit to make it easier to calculate? You have to provide 4 weeks holiday, but as an employer you can provide over that figure, which in this case may make sense to do as it may simplify things.

For example, lets just say that your nanny works 3.5 days per week, every week.
4 x 3.5 = 14 days. See nice and easy.

Otherwise, we have to work it a longer way.
(Number of weeks for Term Time and School Holidays may be different depending on length of your School Terms)

36 weeks term time x 3 days = 108 days
16 weeks school hols x 3.5 days = 56 days
Total Days Worked Per Year = 164 days
Average Days Worked Per Week
= 164 / 52 = 3.154

Therefore
4 x 3.154 = 12.62
Best to round this up to 13 days.

When can you nanny take holiday? For example, I work Term Time only and can not take holiday during school term time (part of my contract). Can your nanny take holiday at any time, or only during school holidays? What about Bank Holidays, are you including or excluding those from the holiday entitlement.

How to phrase this for a contract... think it may be best to write it all out fully, so that calculations can be seen. So something along the lines of:
----
Your Holiday Entitlement is 13 days. This is calculated as:

• Calculation for total days worked per year -

36 weeks term time x 3 days = 108 days 16 weeks school hols x 3.5 days = 56 days Total Days Worked Per Year = 164 days

• Calculation for average days worked per week -

Average Days Worked Per Week = 164 / 52 = 3.154 days

• Calculation for Holiday Entitlement -

4 (weeks) x 3.154 (days per week) = 12.62 (days holiday) This is rounded up to nearest 1/2 day. Therefore Holiday Entitlement of 13 days.

Holidays are to be taken only during school holidays and must be agreed in advance. Public Holidays are considered to be a normal working day, which if not worked will be deducted from your annual leave.
You are not expected to work between Xmas and New Year. You will take your normal working days off during this period as part of your annual leave. Where Xmas day falls on your normal working day, this day will not need to be taken as part of your annual leave.
---

Does that help? It can get rather complex. ACAS have an advice leaflet which may help with knowing what is and isn't considered to be part of annual leave. Ultimately as long as you give 4 weeks off per year, the rest you can dictate as you wish.

thanks nannynick - yes your calculation is the same as mine - except that its 39 weeks term and 13 holidays - so it actually comes out at 12.5. I need to think about how to do it - I don't mind her having 14 days if they are made up of 4 3.5-day weeks. it would be more difficult though, if she took 4 3-day weeks, and then another 2 days iyswim. I guess I can say 13 or 14 days and then put a restiction on when she can take them. In actual fact she gets quite a few ad hoc days off, and usually gets a total of 5 weeks a year anyway (but only 2 when she likes) plus all bank holidays and I know she's very happy with that. so I don;t think we need to loose sleep over a day or two. It;s justthat I'm re-doing her contract and it does need to go in writing somehow

As you have 12.5 days as your figure, why not round up to 13 days, then put a clause in which states that say 7 days (2 school holiday weeks) of this must be taken outside of school term time. That then leaves 6 days which can be taken as and when needed.

End of the day, decide upon whatever works best for you and your employeee. Sounds as if your nanny is already getting far more holiday than statutory entitlement, so she's bound to be happy with whatever is proposed.