holiday pay for childminders.

[ajh28]

Hi.
Im a childminder and have an issue with one of my parents in regard to holiday pay. in our contract it states that i am entitled to two weeks holiday at half pay. I have been minding her child for almost a year and have just told her about two weeks holiday im taking in may. she now says shes not prepared to pay me for holiday and because i took a few days off at christmas and didn't charge her for them that ofsted have told her that i can't charge her for these. what do other childminders charge/do about holiday for them and thier minded children. Any advice would be really helpful -thanks.

Ofsted don't get involved in financial disputes. So Ofsted won't have told her that.
Your contract will state what the situation is regarding holidays... if that states that when you take holiday, the parent is to pay 1/2 fee, then that is what stands. If you used an NCMA contract... contact NCMA legal team for advice.

It is pretty common for childminders to not charge parents when the childminder is on holiday, but to charge the parents if the parents go on holiday. But, what is in the contract is what the parent has agreed to.

Agree with Nannynick. The contract governs what she and you do and don't have to do. That is the very purpose of a contract.

However, as a parent, I would not sign up to paying you to take holiday. But I would pay you in full for holidays I take. So I can understand her not wanting to pay you. But, she should have thought of that before she signed the contract.

The National Childminding Association recommends that childminders negotiate "between two and four weeks each year as part of your contract" NCMA Handbook 07/08, P.50. It also comments that many childminders have instead chosen to include an element of holiday pay when setting their childminding rates.

If your contract says 2 weeks a year and you charge her for both weeks in May then you won't be able to charge her this christmas. Unless you're not taking any holiday at christmas I'd suggest charging her for just one week at may and continue to charge for the christmas each year.

Parents pay me full for their hols and half for mine, if we happen to take them at the same time then i still charge half pay. My reasons are that if i didn't get paid I wouldn't take holiday and without holiday i would burn out and end up ill so would end up having time off anyway, i also asked around to see what the local cm's do and it was pretty standard, also NCMA reccomends you take 4 weeks off and get paid something for them. I've only ever had one problem with someone paying me but that was because they wanted to not pay me while they went on hols for 4 weeks.

i pay 50 weeks a year, so all bank holidays, easter xmas my hols etc covered. just 2 weeks in august unpaid.

Thanks for the advice. For her holidays i give her two weeks free and two weeks at half price, so i guess it works out about the same. Our contract review is due in the next month, so i will probably change the hols so she pays me for hers and not mine as this seems a simpler way of doing things.

I think your mistake may have been giving her her holidays as free rather than yours. Obviously though she is BU and in breach of contract.

FWIW my CM has 4 weeks hols where I pay her half and I am entitled to 4 weeks where I also pay her half.

But the issue here isn't really whether or not a childminder should get paid for hols. The issue is that this woman agreed to it when she signed the contracts and now wants to back out and renegotiate the terms. How would she feel if you said you wanted to renegotiate the hourly rate?

ajh28, I think the thing you should be thinking iabout is if you insist on the terms of the contract (which of course you have a right to do), will that cause her to give notice. And if she does give notice will you be able to replace her quickly? Alternatively, if you decide to let her off, and you other mindees parents find out (and they probably will) wil they be upset with you?

Contractually, you are absolutely right to insist on this payment. But, you have to consider what her choices are and what the knock on effects will be to you.

I have either paid in full for my holidays and nothing for the cms or half for mine and half for theirs. At the end of the day it works out more or less even.

You may have set the precedent by taking the days off at christmas and not charging but on that premise its nothing for your holidays and full for hers

I do think its unfair to charge full for the cms holidays and full for the parents holidays as the parents will still have to arrange child care for those weeks. However that doesnt seem to apply to you so I cant se her problem.

Have you had no holidays for nearly a year? If so you probably need the break.

Have the parents had no holidays either? What did you do then?

Anyway its in the contract she signed up to, so really its up to her. If she wants you to continue looking after her children then she pays up if not she has to start looking elsewhere and goodluck to her with that attitude.

Absolutely, she is in breech of contract eleusis. And that is the bottom line, just talking around the subject a bit.