Questions about nannies
 

Hi everyone

We have a nanny arriving next week under the BC Live-In Caregiver program. She'll be living with us in Vancouver and taking care of the house and our one year old son.

I have a few questions re contracts etc that I hope someone can help me with, so here goes!

1. Can we ask her to work Tuesday to Saturday with Sun/Mon off?
2. We are employing her for 40 hours per week. We are planning to give her a regular timetable of five 6-hour days, then keep the extra 2 hours each day as a kind of flexible reserve for babysitting etc. We would obviously give her plenty of notice. Can anyone see any problems with this?
3. Where can we get a contract for her to sign when she arrives? Does anyone have a sample?
4. Can anyone recommend a cheap health insurance solution for her first 3 months?
5. Do we need to pay for her flights home every once in a while? We had a nanny in another country where this was the case, but I don't *think* that this applies in Canada.
6. We would like her to work two shifts each day, from 7-11am and 4-6pm. Is there any issue with having these shifts so far apart?

Many thanks in advance for any advice that you can give!!!
Van

Re: Questions about nannies
 

I don't see why not.

Yes, I think that is totally unreasonable. I don't see anything wrong with asking her, occasionaly, if she minds changing her hours to help you out. It is not on to not allow her to organize her life outside work.

http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/work/ca...e-contract.asp

Pacific Blue Cross

You have to pay her flight to Canada, but you don't need to pay for flights for her vacation.

I don't think there is a legal problem. It is just by negotiation.

Re: Questions about nannies
 

JonboyE posts an excellent reply, but BE's expert on nans is Oink: I'd await his input.

Re: Questions about nannies
 

Jonboy thanks for the comments!

I explained this one really badly. What we want to avoid is giving her full 8-hour days and then having to pay overtime if we need her to babysit for us. So what we want to do is give her a regular schedule of 6 hours a day, then ask her to babysit for 3-4 hours maybe twice a week. So she would still be under her 40 hours per week, but it just gives us a bit more flexibility. And we would give her notice in advance of when we would need her to babysit.

Re: Questions about nannies
 

I understand what you want to achieve. I just don't think you are going about it in the right way.

Say, for example, she wanted to register in an ESL class that was on 8.00pm to 10.00pm every Thursday night. If you asked her to take Wednesday afternoon off and babysit Wednesday evening she will likely say yes. If you asked her to take Thursday afternoon off and babysit Thursday evening she will say no. I don't think it is right that you can turn round and tell her that's tough and that you are the boss and you will tell here when she will and will not work.

I am sure you are not that sort of person so I would put regular hours in the contract and add a clause that the hours may be varied by mutual agreement.

Re: Questions about nannies
 

Sample template of a contract for live in caregiver

http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/work/ca...e-contract.asp

Re: Questions about nannies
 

You should look at this, as nothing you write in a contract can supersede the Employment Standards Act. This is the minimum standard, you can improve on it, but not offer less.

Some of what you are saying should have been agreed in writing before you engaged a nanny. Once it is arranged and she is here, if she won't agree to your terms, she can fall back on employment standards and you are stuck with it.
http://www.labour.gov.bc.ca/esb/esaguide/welcome.htm

The questions you are asking now, should have been asked, answered and organised months ago!