We have a full time nanny/housekeeper in a long term contract.
We pay her a good salary (and a bit more than her previous job) which is a strain in our finances, but she was an experienced nanny/housekeeper with good references and we felt she deserved the pay when we took her on. Any extra hours during the year we pay at £12/hour.
She is in her second year with us and last year we took her with us on our holidays. Beforehand, she informed us that in previous jobs, whenever she travelled with the family, she would get paid an EXTRA £100 per DAY in addition to all travel costs AND her monthly pay.
We told her we could not afford anywhere near that, and we offered her all travel expenses covered (of course) including food, plus working 2 extra hours per day at her £12/hr rate, and an extra £12 per day just for the trouble of being away from home.
We also told her she had the option not to come with us, take unpaid holiday and perhaps find a summer travel nanny job that would pay her what her previous families paid her.
She decided to come with us and accept the terms. However, the evening BEFORE the flight, when we had a lot of stress because we had just moved home two weeks before, our flat was full of boxes and we didn't even have our suitcases packed, and she knew all this, she tells me that she misunderstood what we had offered her (even though I had put it in writing) and that we are paying her too little for the trip.
We nearly fired her at that point for her lack of consideration but I could not possibly fly alone with 2 small children and a baby. She agreed to come anyways and kept insisting until we payed for her bus travel to the city where her family lives on the days off she was going to take while we were at our travel destination.
Fast forward a year, in which her performance has been declining compared to the first year, and we are now trying to agree if we can afford to take her with us and how much she wants. She is asking for £60 per day instead of £100 but that is still too much for us. She even told me that this job with us is her worst paid job ever, which is just not true, and definitely unfair because we are paying the most we can and a very reasonable rate.
What is your experience? Is it true that some nanny's get paid £100 EXTRA per day when travelling in addition to all expenses covered?
Would it be an option for us to just tell her that we don't need her over the holidays (and give her unpaid holiday)?
In the medium term we need to find a new nanny (a part time one) but for the next few months we can't let her go. Any advice?