Confused about holiday pay for new nanny

[liznay]

I'm about to employ a nanny for 1 day a week (fridays) am confused about how much holiday I need to give, i.e. number of days she is entitled to.
The Direct.gov site says that she is entitled to 28 per year which includes bank holidays but as no BH will fall on a Friday is she just entitled 20 days pro rata (I make this 4 days per year)

Also, does anyone else just offer SSP or do you offer full paid off days too?
Sorry for all the questions, some of the websites i've been looking at have made it very confusing. This is the first time I've employed a nanny! Thanks in advance

everyone is entitled to 28 days pro rata so that means 5.6 days as she is only working 1 day a week
so in reality you would need to give her 6 days per year
also good friday is a bank holiday that falls on a friday + some years christmas day and new years day too
my last nanny contract just had ssp in it so yes you can offer that

Definitely give SSP only. Pay her more if you like. I have always paid a sick pay but put SSP into the contract in case I think she is taking the mick or I simply can't aford it.

I believe (though I'm not sure) she is also entitled to the bank hol bit even though no bank hols are on Friday. So, that is (20 + 8)/5 = 5.6 hols per year. I would probably just round that up to 6.

Although, I think Chistmas and New Year Bank Hols both fall on Friday this year.

ah yes you are right, hadn't thought about that. Thanks for the speedy replies.
So what happens if she didn't take off Christmas day as holiday? (unlikely, I know)
and wanted to work the day? Can I insist that the BH days such as good friday and christmas day are taken off using her holiday entitlement?
I never thought employing a nanny would be so difficult. I can only just afford to pay a nanny once the tax, NI and empoyers NI contributions are made, seems like a bit of a minefield!

AS an employee, strictly speaking, she asks for particular holidays and you approve or decline them. Obviously, if you never give her the ones she wants or you make her miss her best friends wedding she'll probably call in sick. But, I would agree the bulk of the holidays in the first annual fixed term contract. And Christmas would definitely be on the list. In fact, I would write into the contract that all Bank Holidays are paid holidays and come from her annual holiday entitlement. So, really, she only has 2.6 (or 3?) days left. Maybe let her pick 2 and you pick the other one?

Just SSP is fine.

The holiday calculations look right - 5.6 weeks is pro-ratad (rataed, rata-ed?) down and then rounded up to 6 days for a 1 day a week job. I would say that she picks 3 days, you pick 3 days, which if necessary means you can dictate she takes the 3 Bank Hols and she picks 3, but it's more likely she'll pick Christmas and NY! You should make it clear to here that as there's no mention of Bank Hols in her contract (which she may not be expecting) she will need to book the time off.

Bear in mind, however, that if you picked 3 Bank Hols as her holiday and you then wanted to go away you would be liable to pay her as she'd be available to work, wouldn't have chosen the time off and wouldn't be using her holiday entitlement. That's a fairly common scenario for nanny employers though, who often get more holiday than their nanny.

Not having a go, BTW, or suggesting you wouldn't pay her but many people forget a nanny is paid every week for the whole year, not just for when employers want them to work plus paid holiday.

I think it's usual to divide who chooses what holiday after the bank holidays are identified. I don't choose the bank holidays and let nanny choose the rest.

In fact we don't do this half and half thing that many others do. We sit down and agree the holiday plan together and write it into the contract at the start of the year. It's a complicated negotioation between my work, nanny's preferred schedule, DH's work, and the school hols. But, of course, I would never deny nanny a holiday she wanted without good reason. For example current nanny has requested a week in August for her brother's wedding. And OF COURSE I wouldn't dream of saying she couldn't go. However, I once had a nanny who wanted to take two weeks of holiday during term time because it suited her dad's travel / business schedule. And that one I did decline. It resulted in her moving up her resignation, but that wasn't really a problem as she was leaving a month or two later anyway. I also once declined another nanny's holiday request because it was made to accommodate her boyfriend's work schedule and I just felt boyfriend's work was not more inportant than my own.

So, I reserve the right to say yes or no to any holiday request. But, I make an effort to accommodate the nanny wherever I realistically am able to do so.

That's fine for a fixed term contract, or a yearly rotating one, Strix, but where BHs may be 3 on a working day in 1 year and 1 in any other year it might make the wording tricky.

TBH if I were the employer in this situation I wouldn't be saying nanny could 'pick' any holiday she liked, I'd have a system as you do where nanny can request and final word, as far as the contract is concerned, stays with the employer.

Some people seem to think it's their given right to have the holiday they want but if it's not convenient then it's not convenient!

Thanks for all your replies. I'm still a bit confused though. In my work, I get 25 days paid holiday plus the 8 BH days per year which is equal to 33 days holiday per annum. If my nanny is getting 6 days holiday per annum PLUS her BH days for all the other days she works in a week (for her other employers), that would give her 38 days paid holiday a year - that can't be right???

I'm not trying to wriggle out of giving her paid BH days off, just trying to work out whether they should be included in her 6 days holiday I'm giving her.
It's all so confusing isn't it?

6 days including the bh .

The only bh falling on a Friday in the next few years is Good Friday. Xmas day/Boxing day/New years day don't fall on a Friday for the next few years.

So she will get Good Friday off (paid) and 5 other days holiday for the year.

Boxing day is a bank holiday in 2014

Should say;

Boxing Day is a bank holiday on a Friday in 2014!!!!

Yes, the 6 days includes any bank holidays, otherwise she would have a lot of holiday!

This is basically why holiday is now 5.6 weeks (8 bhs plus 4 weeks) which is good because it got too complicated to work out pro rata otherwise and some people got way more holiday than others.

Ah... must learn to ready a British calendar and remember second to last row is Sat and not Fri. Sorry.

As other have said, you give her 6 hols in total. You can specify as many of those as you choose. But, usual practise is to give her some say where practical. So, any bank hol that falls on a working day is a given (in my opinion). Then of the rest I'd let her choose one or two.

Incidentally, your employer is giving you 5 more hols than is required by UK employment law.

ah thank you that has cleared it up for me