Maternity leave for nanny...but what about the accrued leave???

[Spockster]

Well I have just about got my head round the idea of a temporary nanny, and the fact that the agency will charge me a grand for the privilege of finding one. And I can handle temporary cashflow issues and my lovely nanny coming back with a baby in tow. No problems. But how on Earth are we going to cover all the accrued leave? She will be off over the school holidays, and hence we will each have used up 3 weeks holiday while she is off. She gets 5 weeks a year, and will be off for 6 months, so having taken one week already she will have 4 weeks to take when she comes back in November. We will only have 2 weeks left each, so does that mean we will be destined not to have any time off together over Christmas?!
How have others handles this problem?

Can you not ask her if she would take pay in lieu? I'm not sure if you are allowed to mind....

Otherwise, you are going to have to get the temporary nanny back in whilst she takes her accrued leave. A very expensive business, you have my sympathies.

You also have to pay for holiday whilst she is on maternity leave. As I was not planning on returning to work my boss paid me for any over due leave plus the 3 weeks that I accrued during my maternity leave. ( I took 9months leave ) Could you suggest to your nanny that she takes her holiday at the end of her maternity leave so the temp covers it? As a nanny I wouldn't have felt this an unreasonable request.

If she isn't already on maternity leave, and if you can cover the days, are you able to ask her to take more of her holiday before going on ML?

Probably, but this will still come out of my annual leave allowance, so it won't help. I was just too generous, giving her 5 weeks' leave plus BHs in the first place! You live and learn....I will probably end up asking her to take it at the beginning/end of her maternity leave, hence have to pay for 2 nannies for some weeks. I hope she comes back to work after all this!