Editor's view

Although for tax purposes the Inland Revenue does not recognise nannies as self-employed workers, we all know that in most respects they work in sole charge not just of children but of their own careers. They don't have a supervisor watching over them all day, and they don't have the back-up of colleagues in the workplace. And unlike other employees, they don't have a set of terms and conditions or a rising pay scale, except that which they have negotiated for themselves and, hopefully, have had put in writing in a contract. Therefore it's all the more important that they go into a job knowing what they can justifiably expect and how to fight their own corner when any of their rights are neglected by an employer. So in this issue, we follow up last month's nanny pay survey with a look at negotiating a realistic level of pay for a particular job, or other terms that are worth as much as money. And we consider the skills of assertiveness as essential tools of the trade for employees like nannies who, as far as their own careers go, have to be their own boss.