Contracts and Payslips

You are legally entitled to receive a written statement from your employer which defines the Terms and Conditions of her employment within 28 days of the commencement of employment and PAYE for Nannies recommends that this should be agreed by the employer and yourself at the time of the final interview. It will then be in force from the first day of the employment. The statement generally takes the form of a formal Contract of Employment signed by both you and the employer.

It is most important that you ensure that you keep a copy of such a statement or contract when you start work as this will allow you to prove the facts of your employment if a dispute arises. Contracts should cover a number of areas but the issues which will probably be of most interest to you and which you should ensure are covered in the contract are:

Pay and hours worked
These should be stated clearly and should cover what will happen if you are asked to work additional hours, either in advance as agreed overtime or at short notice (for instance if the employer is delayed from returning home for some reason)

Sick Pay
You should understand pay arrangements if you take sick leave. If the contract states that only Statutory Sick Pay arrangements apply, you should realise that you will not be paid at all for the first three days of any period of sick leave and will then be paid at a rate of only £72.55 per week for any days of sickness after this. A more normal arrangement is for the employer to pay for a limited number of sick days in any year at normal pay rates before Statutory Sick Pay arrangements apply. The number of days covered by such an arrangement must be stated in the Contract.

Dispute Procedure
This should set out a formal procedure which would be invoked in the event of a dispute with the employer and will ensure that this is concluded fairly.

Payslips
You are legally entitled to receive proper payslips whether this is stated in the contract or not. However, it is very much in your best interest for you to insist during contract discussions that the employer operates a formal PAYE scheme (either through a company such as ourselves or by the employer themselves) and issues proper payslips showing gross pay and the amount of tax and National Insurance that has been deducted each week or month. You will need these if you apply for a mortgage or personal loan.