Nanny Pregnancy/Maternity Leave

[NatashaRomanoff]

Our nanny is pregnant, this is now an established pregnancy and we have had sight of her MATB1. She disclosed this pregnancy the week after we employed her - I was and remain really pissed off by this, but accept that it's a risk you take when employing one.

We had discussed the possibility of the nanny returning after maternity leave to provide after school care for our four children and allow her to bring her own baby. I am becoming increasingly uncomfortable with this as it becomes more of a reality. Our children are all under 10, our eldest is 9 and has ASD so complex needs that need a lot of specialised care. 2 are toddlers aged 4 and 2. I do not feel that any nanny could provide adequate care in these circumstances if they have their own newborn with them. Nanny wishes to return to work when baby is 6 weeks old

As yet we have been unable to arrange any maternity cover. It may be possible for me to change my hours short term to cover myself but this won't be possible permanently. I'm facing the possibility of having to quit work if we don't accept nanny back as there seems to be no alternative, but I am just not OK with her coming back in this capacity.

Morally I feel that if we make that decision I will need to tell her as soon as possible. What is our legal position here? Presumably if I have to leave work myself we can legally make her redundant as the position really won't exist - but what if I don't? If I can, on the off chance, maintain the reduced hours can redundancy still apply? I recognise that as we've previously verbally agreed I can't offer anyone else then position permanently

If I needed the job/money, I would 100% put my baby before my boss's position, just as you will put your family before the nanny.

Well she wouldn't (won't) have employment if/when I don't will she? So I'm order to have secure employment she should have disclosed. At least we could then have made an informed decision, but that luxury wasn't afforded to us.

Assuming this nanny is now not going to come back following maternity leave, how are you going to resolve the childcare issue? I would focus on that for a while, advertise for maternity cover, see if there are any other viable childcare options. Make sure the local authority knows you are looking (they have a statutory duty to provide information about childcare services, though not nannies) and they should be trying to encourage new providers if their area is short on childcare places.

In order, not I'm. I'm just not selfish enough to have put somebody else's employment at risk for my own gain. Silly me.

You wouldn't have employed her if you'd known, so insecure employment is better than none.

I have looked into everything, Nick, and the options are that my work agree to move my hours, or I will have to leave my job. There is no viable alternative.

It's good for you to have the choice. Not everyone does, especially those on lower pay.

I am on lower pay. I don't have a choice. But my children can't just look after themselves. We're going to be considerably worse off thanks to this. Thanks for the assumption though.

I would just say about the car.

Also five kids altogether is a bit much .

OP, but on that basis, this woman would be completely unable to earn a living for nine months or more. It's not her own gain, it's her livelihood - (presuming she's not living off a trust fund and nannying for fun).

She may well have miscarried in the past so not necessarily have expected to see the pregnancy through. She may be irregular and have tested late. I assume she was in another job before that finished for some reason (as otherwise she would not have voluntarily given up SMP probably) - again, quite possibly because her employers put their career or life choices above hers, more or less inevitable in this kind of role. If you fell pregnant again, doubtless you would have made her redundant once your maternity leave started.

The car sounds like a perfectly good reason why you can't accommodate her working request, along with the fact you don't think she will be able to meet your children's complex needs related to ASD while looking after a baby.

If you don't have a choice then you actually would do the same if you had to rather than sacrifice yourself for your boss

Little because the OP said the nanny had arranged to take six weeks of maternity leave. By law, you need to give eight weeks' notice to change. Whilst, yes, she is fully entitled to take 12 months off if she wishes (plus any acrued annual leave) if the OP said her return with the newborn could not be accommodated and the nanny could not return to work as a result, she would not have enough time to give the required notice to extend her maternity leave.

I think you would be on extremely dodgy ground if you tried that Fuzzy - it looks like clear discrimination. Financially might work out better for the nanny though.

My boss is a family member, so no, I wouldn't actually.

I completely understand the OP's annoyance, and anyone else put in the situation, when someone doesn't announce their pregnancy at interview and waits until she has the job (and has probably passed the probationary period). However, most mothers want the best for their child and some work and income is undoubtably far better than nothing at all or being on benefits and having to go to lots and lots interviews whilst heavily pregnant when you don't need to declare anything as your bump does the talking.

Nick, am I right in thinking that if I was to leave my job, rendering the position unnecessary, I can legally and legitmately serve redundancy?
Can I also do this if a change in working hours means the position isn't needed?

How Little? The OP would be saying that the employee' exact terms and conditions remained unchanged and her request to alter them upon her return to work could not be accommodated. Completely legal because, as the OP says, this change has not been agreed and it would be no different to someone being off and asking to return to work part time hours and it being refused. All the nanny is entitled to after six weeks of maternity leave is the same job she had before she left and that would be exactly what the OP would be offering. The fact it would be untenable got the nanny because she could not get her own childcare is irrelevant.

Fuzzy - it would be quite clear that you refused the request to bring the baby back and refused the request to allow her to take her full maternity leave with the intention of forcing the employee out of a job.

Fuzzy, the default is a maternity leave of 12 months.

If nanny indicated she wanted to take a maternity leave of six weeks and come back to the same job, then she would be giving notice of a shorter maternity leave that she could only vary with 8 weeks' notice. Then your scheme might work.

In this case, the nanny has asked to come back to a different job ie NWOC. If that different job is not available then she wouldn't take six weeks leave but potentially the full year (whilst probably looking for a NWOC job).

OP does she need to drive around your four children all at once ?

And if I was the nanny, I certainly wouldn't be saying i would be back after six weeks if I didn't have the NWOC variation in writing.

OP, as your boss is a family member, you have some other link to him/her. A woman who you met a couple of times for interview and who you would never have seen again if she disclosed her pregnancy doesn't have any such link to you!

Yes, Audrey, for school runs. These are, obviously, not optional. There are also various after school clubs, the children need feeding, homework supervised (x3) etc. There is also light housework written into her contract... I couldn't do it with a newborn!

The only reference to giving 8 weeks notice I can see is if the employee wants to return to work earlier, not clear that it also refers to taking full leave entitlement.