friend being sued by nursery

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my friend has been threatened with legal action because she has 'ppaoched' a nanny from a local nursery. he child is being withdrawn at the end of the month and the new nanny will start soon after.

apprently she signed a contract to say that if her child left she couldn't employ one of their staff for six month, but she didn't really know what it mean't really. now they have rung her up to say they are seeking legal advice and she will hear from solictor

if she didn;t understand the contract, she should have had it explained to her before she signed on the dotted line...

bit shocking all the same....

Yes I signed one of these when I worked within a nursery, no idea what will happen.

sorry but ignorance is no excuce. It stated in her contract that she couldn't employ any of the nursery staff for a period, what part of that did she not understand exactly.

I had to sign a similar contract when ds went to a local nursery.

tBH the nursery have every right to pursue this, and it's likely they will win as she signed a contract agreeing to those terms.

there is NO way she will win this one I don't think .. she should hope to settle it beforehand .. maybe with a huge apology to begin with

and I would be amazed if she didn't realise this wasn't allowed beforehand .. its fairly standard

is it all hot air, or is this serious / enforcable.

what could they want from her? money?

I am fairly sure I signed something like this with dd's pre-school and it was fairly straight forward. Sorry but it is standard practise and I think they have a case.

they have to pay to replace and train the staff member they've lost .. so yes if they do pursue it they probably will want money

get her to get some legal advice .. check her household insurance for legal cover ...

They will want money and they will be making an example of her to any other parents thinking of doing this to the nursery.
Parents who rely on nurseries, and prefer a low staff turnover, tend to regard what she has done as pretty low tbh
And ignorance not an excuse.

essentially the nursery are entitled to a recruitment fee as this lady found her nanny through the nursery so im afraid they have every right to pursue it

Our nursery used to charge 3 months of the nanny's salary as a "poaching fee". I'm surprised that the nanny's contract of employment with the nursery doesn't also have a clause in it tbh.

Of course it's enforceable and why shouldn't it be? It's very unfair on the nursery and the other children. Where's the continuity of care for the children if people can just poach a member of staff they like? Nurseries invest a lot of time and effort in recruiting staff and it must really p*ss them off when parents take their staff.

Yep very enforceable - different job/sector but I've pursued a client who poached my staff before now and thanks to a contract like that one got 6 months salary and all fees for recruiting a replacement as compensation.

have to agree piglit...excellent nurseries are made by excellent staff, and poaching is something that all nurseries guard against....

Agree that she should offer them a recruitment fee comparable with what agencies charge. I have actually seen this written into a nursery contract and ignorance is no defence in the eyes of the law! And contracts are important documents so your friend should have queried any part that she didn't understand... Sorry!

i never thought of it like this. when my friend told me about this plan months ago i initially thought, oh thats will be nice for you LO to have a familiar nanny. never thought she was doing anything wrong. didn't even think about the moral side of it, just thought of an greement between two adults.

this could get messy.

should she get legal advice or wait to see what they come up with?

i would suggest that she gets legal advice but she needs to be prepared for the fact that she will have to pay some recompense to the nursery and with respect to your friend, i find it hard to beleive that she didnt know what she was doing.

the nanny must have known there would be trouble too

it happened here - not sure what the outcome was

the nanny would have definitely known what she was doing, it would have been in her contract too.

The nursery worker probably did sign something about it, but from what I know, that sort of clause isn't enforceable, as it's limiting her employment options.

I wouldn't have thought that nannies usually pay their agencies anything for placing them - I have always assumed that the agencies make their money out of the families, so there is no equivalent to a recruitment fee with regard to the nursery helper and so no-one would expect her to pay compensation to the nursery...

With regard to your friend, I was thinking that it might be difficult for the nursery to show that they have suffered any loss as a result of her breach of the contract. I mean, presumably they will have to pay an agency to find them a replacement (or at least incur advertising costs), but they would probably have had to do that anyway. So, in the absence of any specific provision requiring your friend to compensate them, I am not sure they would get anything off her. But unnecessary aggro and (in my view) sharp practice by your friend anyway...

well if the nanny was happy at the nursery she would'nt leave would she?

This is normal practice for a nursery. Does your friend actually have to be the employer of this nanny? For example, could she organise a nanny share and have the other parents actually take on the role of employer until the 6 months are up?

She is probably bound to the terms of this contract. Her best course is to avoid putting in writing that she is this girl's employer.

God I'd be raving if one of dd's carers was poached by another family. There are one or two that she is particulary fond of and I'd be gutted if they left for any reason tbh, but this would almost feel like abandonment (overreaction I know, but there it is).

Don't blame the nanny though, most nurseries pay peanuts and she'll probably be much better off as a private nanny.