Need help urgently - I'll be calling our nanny PAYE payroll provider as well in the morning but MN always comes through in a pinch. I'm posting this in Nannies as well.
For a long and complex series of reasons we needed a cover nanny for six weeks for our very active DS (nearly 2). I found someone on childcare.co.uk who wasn't ideal but we were desperate, and it was only for 6 weeks.
Nanny started work complaining of a knee injury sustained while driving home from interview with us. It quickly became clear that as a result of the knee issue she felt unable to perform her duties as outlined by us in the interview. Her second day on the job was a day off to visit the GP who said there was nothing wrong with it. I basically was unable to do any work for the two weeks as I was always dropping everything to do the things she couldn't do (ie. everything that couldn't be done sitting down). We tried to accommodate her by asking her to help with our newborn more instead eg. cuddling him while I fed DS, sitting with him in the moses basket while I took DS to the park, doing 2 nights worth night nannying at her offer as she was a night owl (and then she slept in the next morning, which was fine). I couldn't get any work done and was basically taking care of DS full-time in her stead.
Anyway middle of second week she said to me it wasn't going to work - her knee was too painful, she couldn't carry out her duties. I said I agreed she couldn't keep working, it was a shame but she had made a go of it in good faith and it just hadn't worked out. I also knew she had a full time job lined up for afterwards who she had put off as they wanted her to start immediately, so I said she should put her foot up for a week and then start her other job immediately as they wanted her to originally. She agreed and I wrote her a reference explaining that she had to leave our employment early because of her knee, gave her a get well soon card and a potted plant. She read the reference and thanked me for it. When DH got home that night he said he was sorry to hear that she was leaving us, which she didn't dispute.
On the last day she finally gave me her P45 which I had been waiting for so I could draw up the contract with her gross salary (we had agreed a monthly net figure, which I had paid her in cash weekly while awaiting her P45 to do the contract and generate payslips from our payroll company). I took it and explained that her payslips and P45 from us would be in the post which she should hand to her next employer.
She is now claiming that our "chat" (her quotes not mine) was somehow me telling her to go home for a week to put her knee up and that she never resigned, and certainly not for the reasons I stated in the reference (that she read at the time and didn't query). I think that she is trying to get us to pay her for the next four weeks - however she never had any days off sick that she requested except the day to visit the GP, and didn't ask for sick leave. On departure all her belongings were removed from our house and it was expressed to be the end of her employment. I wished her luck with her next post as she left.
She has no contract of employment with us as I was waiting for her P45 to work out her gross salary - all she has is a lot of our cash for doing not very much and a reference that frankly I no longer want to give her! Oh, and a pot plant and a get well soon card. We have had to hire another nanny to cover the next four weeks so it will be a disaster if she claims she has a right to come back to work.
Does she have a right to SSP? She saw the GP who said there was nothing wrong. As far as we're concerned, she felt she couldn't do the job and resigned, which we accepted, gave her her reference, explained the P45 would be in the post, and that was that.
Does she have a leg to stand on here?