Au Pair Placements - is an au pair an employee or participating in a cultural exchange

[Treeesa]

Thread continued from Time to go from nanny to au pair that we seem to have hijacked.

nannynick We've had au pairs from the Czech Republic before and when we called the border & immigration department to register them for the worker registration scheme (necessary for employees from the 2004 new A8 countries) we were told we didn't need to bother as au pair work/placements are not considered employment.

mranchovy If you read the bottom of this page definition of au pair by European Commission then it is quite clear "The committee wants to stress that an au pair is not an employee and therefore not governed by employment legislation."

Just above this it also stresses "Definitions defined by ECAPS are based on the existing European Agreement on Au Pair Placement from 1968 (Ets 068), however updated and detailed to modern standards." So has incorporated the changes made to include male au pairs and other changes that have been made.

Your pointing out of the word 'employment' in document BR3 is another example of 2+2=5 to pick out words to extrapolate an unfounded point. The word employment is often used as a general term. It and 'employed' can be used in different contexts - in some cases inanimate objects can be employed to complete a task as obviously it means 'put to use'.

Even more reason to have clear boundaries/expectations in writing then - and then goodwill gestures in either side are clearly favours rather than obligations.

Is that the AP and your brother or you and the AP's brother? Either way sounds like a good cultural exchange to me .

Thanks for the new input. Anyone think we should take on the agencies and their 'not an employee, one weeks holiday after 6 months, any problems call us and we will tell you to put up with it' rubbish?

Missus, EColi I think that at least 90% of au pair employers want to do the right thing (although there will always be a small minority who will treat an au pair as a slave).

The problem is that nearly all the agencies tell nannies and their employers that they only get two weeks holiday, have no employment rights and the only thing they can do if they have any problems is call the agency.

How can we stop this?

LOL Mr Anchovy

'Twas a fetching French lassie who took a liking to my little bruv. Thinking about the quality of AP brothers I have encountered, I think I would probably decline the other part of the cultural exchange, if that's OK!

I think most agencies are truly, truly rubbish, and even the better ones are very limited in what they do to help APs see the light. I have only ever come across one agency in my life that made what I would call an effort sorting out a duff AP.

Basically the attitude seems to be that after the (miniscule) guarantee period, if the AP buggers off you're on your own, and all they do is hand wring and bleat about how sorry they are, and would you like to give them some more money for a new AP/Nanny or whatever.

It's not surprising people go to Au Pair World and so on, is it?

Gosh go away for a week and some people write some very long posts.

Going back to the original question "is an au pair an employee or participating in a cultural exchange?".

I don't see these as mutually exclusive. We strive here for both, but if in doubt employee takes precedent.