Whether you are just starting your career as a nanny or have many years of experience, once you take up a new position you will want to focus on getting to know the children, establishing a routine and developing a good working relationship with your new employers. Your job is challenging enough without distractions over basic employment matters such as the exact working hours and how they are paid, when you get your holiday, and so on.
But even if you are not given an actual contract on the first day of your new job, from a legal perspective your contract is considered to have started as soon as you walk through the door of your workplace, and your employer must at least give you a verbal description of your job when it starts.
But as the eccentric Hollywood producer Sam Goldwyn once said, 'A verbal contract isn't worth the paper it's written on.' Within two months of your starting date your employer is legally required to provide you with a written contract, or a statement of the terms and conditions of your employment. As an employee you have certain statutory rights, which are governed by law. You should have these 'contractual rights' laid out in your contract. Your contract should include all terms and conditions that you have agreed with your employer, including your start date, hours of work and your starting salary (which should specify gross or net). It should also include their agreement to operate PAYE on your behalf.
Your employer can make additions to improve upon your statutory rights in the contract, but they cannot put things in that in any way reduce your rights. The contract might also include a detailed description of your duties, house rules and disciplinary procedures, and any other benefits to which you may be entitled. Your contract of employment is a legally binding agreement and obliges both you and your employer to keep to the terms spelled out in it.
You may not think that a written contract is particularly important. You may consider yourself to be a good judge of character, someone who would never work for a family who does not appear reliable and honest, and think that written contracts are only for nannies who lack confidence in their employers. But a written contract is not a sign of distrust. As well as a legal obligation, it also helps to prevent unnecessary misunderstandings.
Yet a surprising number of UK nannies still work without one.
It is worth keeping in mind that without one you may be kept in the dark for some time about exactly what your employer expects of you. For instance, while most employers agree to a month's notice period on either side, without a written contract you are only legally entitled to one week's notice for every complete year of employment. Holiday arrangements may also create problems. Many families ask their nanny to take at least some of their annual leave during the summer holidays. If this is agreed verbally, your employers have the right to change their mind and ask you to take all your holiday at a time that is suitable to them.
The recent, much publicised legal case between Dolores O'Riordan, lead singer of the pop group the Cranberries, and her nanny Joy Fahy provides a good example of why a written contract is essential. The nanny sued her former employer for, among other things, benefits supposedly promised in a verbal contract. Hopefully the relationship between you and an employer will never deteriorate to the extent that it did between these two - the nanny had to pay thousands in court costs when the judge ruled that she had failed to put forward evidence for her claims. However, if it did, and you ended up in court, both parties would find it difficult to prove their arguments without a written contract.
Don't wait for your new family to raise this issue. This may be their first experience as employers. Instead let them know that you expect a written contract and that a standard form is available from Nannytax, a payroll support service for parents and their nannies, which can be modified to fit the circumstances of your particular employment. Many UK nanny agencies also make contracts available to their clients.
sa Nilsdotter is the nanny and agency co-ordinator at Nannytax. For further information on this or other topics related to your employment rights, call Nannytax on 0845 226 2203 or see the website www.nannytax.co.uk.
