Christmas is a hectic time for most families and it’s also a time when your nanny may want some time off to spend with friends or family.
Many families choose to give their nanny time off over the festive period so that they can spend some time together. But it your nanny is working you’ll need to consider bank holidays as there are several coming up over the Christmas period and they will form part of your nanny’s holiday allowance.
Your nanny will be entitled to a minimum of 28 paid days off per year if he or she works full-time. This is made up of four weeks standard leave and eight bank holidays, which are paid, giving an annual entitlement of 5.6 weeks. The holiday entitlement is pro-rata for part-time or term-time only workers.
Christmas day is a Bank Holiday and this year, because it falls on a Sunday, Tuesday 28 December becomes a Bank Holiday.
You don’t have to give your nanny Christmas day or Boxing day off, unless you’ve agreed to this in the contract, but they’ll need to have the time off at another time to ensure they get their full holiday entitlement.
Taking time off
Ideally, you’ll have sorted your nanny’s Christmas leave by now and you’ll both know when he or she is taking holiday. But if you haven’t here’s how to respond to holiday requests.
Unless you have an agreement on holiday notice in the contract, then your nanny should give notice of at least twice the length of time he or she wants to take off.
And you must respond to a holiday request within the same length of time as the holiday due to be taken. So if your nanny gives two days’ notice for one day’s leave, you must reply within one day.
Of course, this isn’t always practical, especially for occasional days off. It’s often simpler to agree time off at the time of the request if you’re happy for your nanny to take the holiday.
But you don’t have to agree to holiday, especially if it’s inconvenient but it’ll help your relationship with your nanny if you’re reasonable.
If you can’t allow your nanny to take the time off work talk with him or her to agree a mutually convenient date.
Restricting when leave can be taken
It’s best to set out in your nanny’s contract if there are any times when they can’t take holiday or any restrictions on the number of days taken at once, or times when you would like your nanny to take holiday.
And don’t forget, your nanny must be able to take their annual leave. It’s against the law to deny the holiday altogether. They can take it altogether at the end of the year. But if there isn’t time, then you can allow them to carry some of it over into the following year. They can carry up to a maximum of eight days if they work full time. You will need to calculate the entitlement for part-time workers.
