Petition against childminders charging for bank holidays!!

[shortstuff]

Personally the petition does seem like a waste of paper. If its so important they should have checked at the initial meetings.
I have told all me families i would work a bank holiday if it was needed but would prefer not to so would charge an enhanced rate. If im not working through my choice i dont charge.

[FussyElmo]

Maybe I have been looking at this wrong. Several of my childrens groups I pay in advance and if they shut we dont get a refund. There I was thinking I only had two options a) go somewhere else that didnt, b) or pay like it was explained to me at the start. Now I know there is a third option go and set up a petition against it

But instead of doing seperate one perhaps we should add all the different companies together. Anyone one else have any suggestions?

Mine are dance, beavers........................................... .........ps I am happy with both groups and actually think they deserve it

[BuggsieMoo]

I dont charge for bank holidays if they are not worked (irrespective as to whether it is a contracted day or not). I do however charge time and a half if a parent requires me to work them and this is stipulated at the time of signing a contract. I charge nothing for my holidays as I dont like the fact that I am charging for a service I am not providing. Yet I do charge for parent holidays - after all that is their choice and I cannot easily fill their space (particularly when parents seem at times incapable of giving more than 24 hours notice!).

Again I do not charge for my sickness - but this has meant that I rarely take sick leave (although today im off to the doctors with suspected flu that I cant self medicate due to being pregnant) but I do charge for parent/child sickness.

My childminder (yes I use one as well). Is great. My DD goes to her TTO and this is all I am charged for - school days where her school is open. If I choose to take her to school myself (sometimes my own job permits this and my husband can take our sons whose school is in a different location but starts at the same time) then I fully expect to get charged. If my DD is ill and does not attend, again I expect to get charged. My CM however is also great in the fact that her holiday and sickness she does not charge me so im not getting hit with 'double' costs.

Many people do get paid BH when they work for an employer but I know having being an employee previously that yes I was not working a BH and this was paid but it was also 8 days that came off my holiday allowance - irrespective as to whether I wanted it to or not.

[mazza58]

I am going on holiday for two weeks in the summer so have sent an e mail to the council to say that I do not require them to empty my bins so can I have a refund on my council tax as I will not require them to empty it

[carol cameron]

Well, I stand corrected that this petition isn't a joke. I am truly amazed though that someone feels so strongly on the matter that they have started a petition.
I still feel that parents have the choice whether to accept the terms of the service offered by childminders ( and other professions) and would hope that if they didn't like the terms they would look elsewhere and not automatically be critical about the service offered-just because they didn't like it.
I don't like paying for carrier bags at the shops to carry home the shopping I have just bought there but I know that my choice is to take my own bags or accept the shops decision to charge for them.
That's probably not the best example but its's still early morning !!
With the greatest respect Mr A. - the customer isn't always right but I understand and acknowledge their right to feel that way.

[wendywu]

Maybe I have been looking at this wrong. Several of my childrens groups I pay in advance and if they shut we dont get a refund. There I was thinking I only had two options a) go somewhere else that didnt, b) or pay like it was explained to me at the start. Now I know there is a third option go and set up a petition against it

But instead of doing seperate one perhaps we should add all the different companies together. Anyone one else have any suggestions?

Mine are dance, beavers........................................... .........ps I am happy with both groups and actually think they deserve it

Yes good point i also pay a yearly fee to CM group at a childens centre. They have been closed due to snow, flood and a small fire , they must be unlucky huh

[JaneyB]

I don't think we are missing the point. Most of us don't work and don't charge. If someone has signed up to a contract that says they need to pay for Bank Hols then that is there problem. I know a childminder who is Jehovahs Witness and works on Christmas Day (a bank holiday) and states this in her contract - problem for the parents not her if they haven't read the contract. Yes - parents might not like it. But I can assure you that we childminders also don't like the 3 or 4, or 10 or 15 mins late every day for pick up - few of us charge. It's all about the contract and professionalism. We are professionals and we work to a contract - parents - sort yourselves out and read it. I highlight anything that may become controversial when parents sign mine - never had an issue.

[LauraS]

I charge for them, and I work them too for the most part. Parents.don't like paying it, but they don't like paying late fees or deposits or even normal fees some of the time. If they don't like paying for bank holidays, though, they are free to take their children to the nursery down the road from me which doesn't charge for them. It is graded inadequate and charges the exact same fee as I do. Or the other nursery, also inadequate, which doesn't charge for bank hols but charges almost 30% more than me on the regular weekly fee...

Incidentally both of those establishments close at Christmas and for snow days and still charge, whereas I don't.

[rickysmiths]

You are (nearly) all missing the point.

It doesn't matter how good your arguments are for charging for when you choose not to be available, PARENTS DON'T LIKE IT.

At a time when the status of childminders as independent professionals is under threat do you think it is wise to insist on doing something your customers don't like?

So are you suggesting because one disgruntled parent sets up a petition because they signed a contract that they now don't like that all childminders should bow down and go ' so sorry we dared to charge for BH and holidays we won't do it anymore'? Just because we have be threatened with being part of an Agency does not by any means mean we should start to changes our conditions of working!

This morning the Government have U Turned on GCSEs something we were told a few months ago was a done deal and would happen from Sept 2015.

There is no reason now to believe with enough pressure that this might not happen with the current ill researched and informed decisions being made about childcare in this country. Especially as the main agenda is to reduce costs and none of the proposals will do this without reducing standards as well.

If this parent is so upset go and find a childminder or Nursery that doesn't charge for BH but do a Petition to end ALL BH pay for ALL workers if you feel strongly don't just hit out at one low paid group.

[rickysmiths]

I have just had a look and the number of signatures hasn't gone up from 10 which it was on last night when I looked so it doesn't seem he has got much support anyway. You need 10s of thousands of signatures for the petition to be taken seriously!

10 in several days is hardly world shattering support.

[bunyip]

You are (nearly) all missing the point.

It doesn't matter how good your arguments are for charging for when you choose not to be available, PARENTS DON'T LIKE IT.

At a time when the status of childminders as independent professionals is under threat do you think it is wise to insist on doing something your customers don't like?

It's a little disingenuous to say "CMs have all missed the point" just because they actually have some very good points which have successfully countered the opposing argument from every angle.

I could go on about all the things that I (and many other CMs) don't charge for whilst still listening to clients and what parents like or dislike. But I'm not going to deny any CM the right to state their terms in a freely-negotiated contract. I think the point is that most CMs do listen, but don't necessarily feel the need to bend over backwards any further.

Am I to I take it we should learn to conclude future contract negotiations thus: "OK, so just before we sign the contract let's check. You want me have to unpaid holidays, reduce my fees, do additional hours for no charge, accept late pick-ups, etc, etc. Yup, sounds OK. Now, before you toddle off to set up a petition against any of the terms we've just agreed, would you like me to drop my knickers and bend over this table too...?"

Actually, I don't think the original petitioner is stupid. Quite the opposite: I think he's being very clever indeed. He's chosen to launch his petition just when the likes of Truss are kite-flying the myth that 'childcare is expensive' (and I note than none of the facts RS has highlighted, about the real cost of childcare falling over 20 years, has been mentioned in the past weeks/months of media-spun drivel.) All this, of course, is purely in the interest of setting up those agencies for more pen-pushing, bean-counting, office-johnnies to make a packet out of doing the maths and forms for those of us who are out here doing the real work. What better time to put the boot in on the CM industry?

[zippy]

Oh yeah and it is totally unacceptable when you are paying to go away on holiday and stay somewhere else for a week to still have to pay your rent/mortgage- I mean how out of order is that?!

Please please please tell me you wrote that on the numpty mums post

[rickysmiths]

Well when I posted on 7/2/13 there were 10 signatures and I have just had a look and now on the 20/3/13 there are a whopping 14 signatures!!!!!

At this rate he might get up to 20 signatures before the Petition ends in August.

[jelly15]

I don't charge for any time I am not available to work (sickness, holidays or bank hloidays) but I would like to, and feel I deserve to be paid for these times, and those who do have vaild points in why they do. However, as a self employed business woman in location where childcare services are rather competitve I have to be sure my service can compete. If I want to remain in this line of work and enjoy sick pay and paid holidays I would have to go and work in a nursery and be an employee.

[phoenix2010]

I dont charge for bank holidays because im closed

but if a parent signs a contract with a minder that does then thats up to them

plenty of us dont charge for what we dont do

When I had a childminder for my son this was the only thing that bugged me , I was charged for xmas day and boxing day one year and I felt that was unfair , as I couldnt use the service I was paying for

I actually think they have a point but Im not sure it should say "stop childminders ....." as if we all work to the same rules

and Im also not sure it really merits a petition , they should just read their contract more carefully before signing if it really bothers them , like I didnt

[FussyElmo]

Well when I posted on 7/2/13 there were 10 signatures and I have just had a look and now on the 20/3/13 there are a whopping 14 signatures!!!!!

At this rate he might get up to 20 signatures before the Petition ends in August.

Gathering speed at an alarming right

[Nicola Carlyle]

Omg I e just come across this. I mean us this a serious petition?

It's a joke. A contract is a contract surely! x

[hectors house]

I don't charge for bank holidays but I would like to raise the point that it was the NCMA who put the idea into our heads (their contracts) in the first place and then they suggested that all childminders should ask for paid holidays! This is why I am not with the NCMA anymore - I think they have lost the plot.

[wendywu]

I think at the moment this is the least of our worries

[Simona]

Can anyone tell me where this petition is or put a link so we can read what it is asking people to sign?
sorry but I was not aware there was one in the first place...