nanny off sick a lot

[littleEDfamily]

Happy to have a look at her contract - it will be pretty specific about the contractual arrangements around sick pay. In my experience it is unusual for nannies to be paid anything other than SSP, especially so soon after starting (often families as a gesture of goodwill will pay when they don't have to once the nanny has proven their reliability, but the contract itself is less than generous).

It may be that your nanny is just making use of what she sees as a 'benefit', and if that benefit can be legitimately removed, her sick record would dramatically improve! If you are otherwise happy with her and the children like her, perhaps it's worth looking into.

[mumum]

In our very standard nanny contract, we must pay 3 days sick pay (which is "statutory"). Your contract sounds nuts. Some nanny contracts only have one day paid sick pay, as far as I have heard. Our nanny has never been ill more than 3 consecutive days, but if she had a doctor?s notice I would pay more days accordingly.

We also have a clause saying that disciplinary measures can be taken for causing disruption to the household and unreliability in attendance and time keeping, which I think your nanny is doing (texting in the same day, excessive sick days and no doctor?s notice and you don?t even seem to be informed of what her illnesses are). It would be very unfair to dismiss someone by lying about your circumstances and without an honest confrontation and giving them a second chance. Maybe she can explain her health problems (she will need a doctor?s notice to do this though). If you lose your job due to the effect her absence has on your work, she will obviously loose her job too, so there are serious consequences for her here. I hope she is just going through a spell of bad health, which can sometimes happen if you are really run down (and nannying is an exhauting job where you are exposed to lots of bugs and vulnerable to illness), but only a doctor should be able to check if it is serious enough to skip work so much. Hopefully you can keep her and it was just a bad start.

[ginebra]

You should really get in touch with the ACAS helpline,brilliant free service and they will clarify the procedures for you. I think the telephone number is 08457 474747. Good Luck!

[SteveT]

Her time off displays clearly what she thinks of her job.

Find someone else and get her started as soon as possible.

Let the present one go soonest.

[new mother]

Pathetic and gives other more principled nannies a bad name.

If she is like this at the start when she is presumably trying to impress the new employer, what on earth will she be like later on?

Oh and I'm afraid I don't buy the real illness thing. Conscientious people who were unlucky with their health in a new job would be falling over themselves to explain it/work instead/not take pay etc.

Fire her soonest.

[tutut]

sack her and don't look back 4 weeks notice and be done with it take it from someone with experience she will just carry on taking the biscuit, i did the whole "sit down and talk" it doesn't make a difference. if you really want a turn around re-write the contract and remove the sick pay going forward and then see what happens however mine had no sick pay and still had 9 days off in 3 n hlf months. not worth it get rid!

[Convex]

id recommend you ring acas and get advice. look at number of absences over number of days, and is there a pattern, eg always on a monday etc.

if she is a good nanny, then it might be an recurring problem which is close to being sorted.

also, think about how you would expect to be treated by your employer if you were unwell, and behave accordingly.

[Pickle]

Random - this thread was started 5 years ago!

[Convex]

thats so funny, i didnt spot that!