Nanny 20 weeks pregnant when she started job!!

[HantsPants]

Get this... I have just gone back to work 3 days a week, started on 1st September. Found lovely nanny. DD and DS love her. She has just told me she is... wait for it... 28 weeks pregnant and due on 23rd Jan!!! She was 20 weeks when she started, apparently did not know until she was 22 weeks. You may well be wondering why I did not notice her bump. Well, dear MNers, she is very generously upholstered and you can't tell (yes, really). Nanny loves job and DC and wants to take a short time off and come back to work with the baby.

I was initially supportive but DH dead against it. DD aged 6 and a breeze but DS aged 2 and very hard work not to mention has speech delay and needs nanny's full attention for his speech development and Makaton signing etc.

Do not want to pay nanny top whack to look after her own baby in my house and put her newborn baby's needs ahead of my own children's. Cannot imagine that this is anything other than problematic.

Thoughts anyone?

Isn't she required to disclose 15 weeks before she's due or something? Has she just told you now?

I'm assuming you still have to offer her the job back, but don't think she'll be entitled to maternity pay (which you could claim anyway) and you don't have to allow her to bring the baby back or you could renegotiate the contract if you do allow her to.

are you using nannytax or similar? they have v useful help and advice if you call them.

check your contract carefully and then check legality of terms (esp offering job back). as the contract stipulated sole care of your dcs (i assume), i suspect that you would be fine to offer her the job back on the condition she finds suitable childcare for her newborn (and i assume she would turn down the job).

did you use an agency? i would start the search again if i am honest...

it does sound like it was a surprise for both of you though, lol!

You don't need to accept nanny back with baby in tow. Doing so would be a change to the job. Suggest you say at the moment that you do not intend to permit her to bring her baby to work.

ACAS: Maternity Rights
BusinessLink: Maternity Leave - There is a link to an interactive tool for employers.

Nanny started 1st September I presume.

You must write to your employee within 28 days of her notifying you of her date of maternity leave, confirming the date she has selected to start her maternity leave and the date she is due back to work. See Your Obligations

However I am not convinced she is entitled to Maternity Leave. See advice on that... contact Acas Helpline ? 08457 47 47 47. Go through the dates with them, see if they can confirm the situation.

You will need to give her form SMP1 as she is not due Statutory Maternity Pay. SMP1 on DWP website (PDF)

DWP: Guide to Maternity Rights - more about SMP and Maternity Allowance.

Your employee has the right to paid time off to attend ante-natal appointments - This may be a issue for you, as her job is such that finding temporary cover is tricky.

Her job must be kept open for her so that she can return to it after maternity leave (or you will be guilty of sex discrim), but you can keep all the terms the same - ie no baby in tow.

I agree that if your DS is hard work it would not be a good idea to have the baby come into the house. Most mothers with nannies would I think agree with my opinion that it is not a good idea (though I think it would be great if a nanny had older children the same age as your own, rather than a baby)

If you did agree to this then you should be able to negotiate around 20% salary drop to account for the nanny no longer having your children as sole charges.

Sympathies by the way. It is tough enough sorting out our own maternity leave/working worries, now as an employer you have to take responsibility for sorting out loads of stuff for your nanny. But such are the ebbs and flows of being an employer.

If she started new job at 20 weeks pregnant she may not be entitled to maternity pay...you need to check it out.

I would tell her that she is welcome to comeback to work but that it isn't practical for her to bring the baby.

Its a very tricky situation!

I'm sorry, but do you believe she didn't know she was prenant unti 22 weeks? I know she wouldn't be the first but sounds a very unlikely coincidence.

Wow, do you really have to give her paid time off for ante-natal appointments? Can you require she take the kids with her?

I would be a bit annoyed if I thought she knew and simply didn't tell me sooner.

And I would ask for more than a 20% cut in her pay to bring the baby back with her.

Thanks for all words of wisdom and generosity from the sister/brotherhood (Hi Nick - thanks so much for all links and practical advice).

She should have told me at 25 weeks, she has sat on this information for 6 weeks without telling me as she was clearly petrified. To be fair she is lovely girl and great nanny and knows her chances of getting another nanny job with baby in tow are very small in this economic climate and in middle of Hampshire.

You are all right to say that she has not been working long enough to claim SMP (which can be claimed back by me anyway) but has right to have her job back but only on original terms. Contract states that the children have her full attention, thankfully. Mercifully I use Nannytax whose legal advisor has counselled extreme caution in dealing with this. I did not use an agency (Gumtree.com - brilliant). I think I need to start looking for a replacement.

Am just thinking of potential nightmare meltdown situation of her calling in saying her baby is sick, husband in theatre (he is a surgeon) and me about to give presentation to Board. Can't do it... will be having siezures with the stress of it all.

I guess she may decide to take 6 months off and then put her baby in nursery if there's few other options for her.

rare not to know you are 5mth pregnant but does happen

not sure of the legal aspect but i thought you had to tell employers 15weeks before due date, so she should have told you at 25weeks, when she had known for 3 weeks iyswim

legally you have to offer her job back but you are quite within your rights to ask her not to bring baby

I can't imagine it will be cost effective for her to find child care for her own baby...unless she has family.

I do know someone...rather large, admitidly, who genuinly didn't know she was pg untill she was 5 months.

Don't feel bad about telling her she can't bring her baby to work; as nannynick says...it would be changing the job.

Hi Lynette. I suspect unlikely she can find childcare. Actually think it is quite plausible that she did not know she was pregnant, she's huge!

Just need to draft letter to her so that am not in breach of employment law.

reliesed end of my post dissapeered

was trying to say as she didnt legally tell you within the 15weeks of due date, does that make any difference to you not having to offer her job back?

ie she didnt fulfil her legal obligation to you, and it wasnt as if she didnt know then at 25weeks

I was a nanny when I had my first child now 8. I had two part time jobs at the time. I did go back to one as the younger two would be going to school the following september. I saw them into full time school and then left. ( they didn't need a nanny anymore. I contuined to have thier boys for inset days and whenthey were off school but not ill anymore. It worked really well. But I agree 100% with they way they bring up thier kid and I bring up mine the same way. The treated mine like a member of the family. That is the only way it would work. You have to be able to know your children will still get treated the same. I did'nt take a cut in money but I had worked for them for neally four years with only a few days sick and only term time. I stoped doing ironing unless thier children was happy and mine was aleep.( I did it a few times but then it was a bonus) I was very lucky I had a baby who a four child two days a week. she loved it

Have you completely ruled out keeping this nanny? I just think you might want to thorough explore all the pros and cons before you write her off. You did say she's a good nanny and you are otherwise happy with her. And I would much rather have a good nanny with the added complication of a child than a bad nanny without a child -- and there are plenty of those around so you have to consider that when/if you let this one go you might pick up one of the bad ones.

For example, she is probably well aware of the job market and knows she is unlikely to find another role in the area who wil take baby, etc, etc.

I would seriously consider offering her a pay cut to bring the baby back with her. And maybe use the 30% saving for one to one speech therapy for DS (if that is appropriate).

Did she avoid telling you at 25 weeks because telling you then would have fallen within a trial period? If this is the case then I suspect you have more than one leg to stand on - witholding information for her own gain would not be well looked upon really.

I am sure she is terrified, understandably. Can you not sit down and talk to her about it? Even if she gets childcare sorted you will always have the possibility that her baby will be ill - that is a fact of life when employing women, they may have children who may get sick so I think you will have to live with that one - you should have a plan in place incase she is ever sick in any case.

poor girl. tbh i'm with athene, i'd not rule out trying to make it work in the longer run, in return for a pay cut.

Did she not wonder where her periods were?

Have you decided what you are going to do and if she is to come back, how are you going to cover her maternity leave?

hantspants, where in hampshire are you?

Im looking for a hampshire job after Christmas?

(i have a very good freind (size 10) who had no idea she was pregnant until she was 31 weeks... she even went to GP at 30 weeks with classic pregnancy symptoms, and Dr didnt suggest or test or notice either ... she wen back to Dr a week later when her medicine wasnt working after a week and only then did GP suggest pg test and she nearly died of shock when she found out she was just a few weeks away from becoming a mum!)

"you will always have the possibility that her baby will be ill - that is a fact of life when employing women"

In my house, that is a problem with employing men, too.

It appears I forgot to finish my "For example" point below. What I mean to go on to say was that her situation might make her a very dedicated and loyal employee. And you might find she is more willing than other people to go the extra mile.

Although I am still sceptical about her discovering surprise pregnancy 2 weeks after job started. I think she is telling aporkie. However, I aslo think if I were in her shoes I'd probably do the same thing. But, then if I were in your shoes, I'd be a bit hacked off about the lack of information. But, it's difficult to jhudge here I suppose since you can't really prove whether she knew or not.

whats the legal situation if you didnt discover till 26 weeks? tough? just curious, sorry

Athene, don't be silly, the op is not employing a man is she, right now we are talking about a woman. I was responding tailored to her situation, I could have said "employing people" if I had thought about it but it never crossed my mind that anyone would actually need that point clarifying TBH

I'd really struggle with this 'not knowing thing.' I don't think I'd be able to believe it. 12 weeks yes - 22, sorry, no. And the fact that once she did know, she didn't tell you for so long would make me worry about how well we communicate. If she's coming with her kids you need to be able to be very open with her and it doesn't sound like a strength. And while I sympathise with taking a job that far along in the pregnancy assuming she did in reality know(who doesn't need the cash?), it would make me feel like taking the job and not disclosing was ALL ABOUT WHAT WORKS FOR HER with no regard whatsoever to the possible inconvenience for me. Which also isn't a good start to an arrangement like letting her bring her kids to work.

I would be wanting to do some snooping to see if she found out sooner but then if I didn't trust or believe her she would be gone asap.

i could have got to about 25 weeks i think before knowing, had i not missed a period. i just don't get any sort of bump at all until then.

I don't really know anything about employing a nanny, I do however know about discovering a pregnancy late on.

I was 25 weeks with DD1 when I had a scan but it took a few weeks from first test to scan and the scan was only as soon as it was because I had fertility issues that could mask a pregnancy.

I can well imagine her finding out about a pregnancy at 20 weeks and taking 8 weeks to realise how far on she was. not to mention coming to terms with the pregnancy, it is hard work to go from nothing to over halfway through a pregnancy in a matter of days or weeks.

Good luck working it out but if she is telling the truth she probably feels pretty confused and quite guilty at the moment. I left the job I had been in for 6 weeks rather than be pushed as I hadn't signed my contract yet but I still felt guilty.