Help and advice for a foreign nanny please

[JustinCaseyHowles]

Hi I've been talking to a nanny at the school gates and it's becoming clear that she has no time off and seems to be almost a slave at her employer's house.

I've been looking for some help and advice but it all seems to be employment agencies and she says her own embassy has advised her to hang on until she's been in the UK long enough to claim a passport. Is this the only option for her?

Her employers are from abroad too so she may have a different contract if any! Thanks for any help.

I would direct her to the CAB. I'm sure she should be entitled to days off and holidays, though don't actually know how this applies to nannies.

It depends where she is from and the type of visa she has. If she is outside the EU and has a visa as a domestic worker in a private household then there is really very little she can do. Her employer should abide by UK employment laws and she would have the right to take them to an employment tribunal if they do not, but in reality this will mean her losing her employment.

It used to be the case that such workers could switch to another employer, but the UK laws have now changed so that workers cannot do this. Also, if this is the visa that she holds then she will no longer be able to qualify for indefinite leave to remain until she has been here for 10 years- and that is dependant on her employers extending her visas promptly. If they delay and she ends up with even short gaps in her leave she is unlikely to be granted permission to remain in her own right.

Sadly for her, remaining in the UK with awful working conditions may well be preferable to her retuning home to equally bad or worse employment prospects. Staying here may be the only way she can support family back home.

It is sad that our laws contribute to creating situations where people can be abused in this way, but the government really could not give a stuff, so long as they are seen to be trying to reduce legal migration.

If she is desperate to change, she should speak to a solicitor who specialises in both immigration and employment law. And she needs to do so before April when legal aid is removed for people in her situation.

Thanks so much for this advice - I had no idea how little protection someone in this position has. She says the parents are not very nice to her so it sounds like they would do what they could to keep her in her current situation re visa renewing, etc.
I will tell her to get in touch with the CAB to see what can be done if she can get the time off! What a nightmare. Thanks again YDdraigGoch and Thistledew.