Nursery charging for bank holiday

Loulou000

My son attends a nursery on Mondays and Wednesdays, for which I pay a daily rate. I've just been invoiced for January, including a charge for 2 January, a bank holiday on which the nursery was closed. Why should I pay when it's closed? I'm outraged. But they just say it's in their T&Cs. Has anyone else come across this? Is there anything I can do?

Bluemeanie_2

Hello, if it is in their T & C'sm then I fear there is nothing you can do.
My work colleague had this with the nursery his kids go, and we work one floor above trading standards, he even had a word with them see if he can get round it. But unfortunately they can get round it by putting it in their T's and C's and saying it is up to you to choose a nursery so you have freedom of choice which one to take them! (Yeah right, wish that was true! most working parents I know have to take them to the most convenient!)

Spirit_2

Nursery staff will have to be paid for bank holidays.

The Nursery business model could be to build the total cost of BH in to their hourly rate (an approach I have used) and therefore share it across all users or to charge it only to users of the days on which it falls.

The latter does seem a bit harsh on 'monday' users.

brummiebabe

It's fairly standard...they still have to pay their staff......most people get paid for bank holidays, why shouldn't nursery staff?

I don't work in a nursery by the way, but have used them for the last 10 years (and spent many £1000's in the process...) I understand your point, but they are a business after all. I was really happy with my nursery and the fantastic staff there, so although it wasn't great (and I'd rather not have had to pay it), it was never an issue for me.

chelle230

I've heard that most nurserys do charge for Bank Hols, private nurserys anyway.
When my DS was there we had to pay for every Bank Holiday, it used to annoy me too, but nothing we could do about it unfortunately.

Money_maker

If you search, I think there's been previous long threads on this subject...

Loulou000

Thanks for your replies. It would seem fairer to build the cost of BHs in across all sessions. But if this way is standard I will stop worrying about it!

withabix

There have been previous threads on this, however, my opinion is that:

if they charge you for Bank Holidays, then they should be open to accept your children.

marywooyeah

withabix wrote: »

There have been previous threads on this, however, my opinion is that:

if they charge you for Bank Holidays, then they should be open to accept your children.

agreed - I have to pay for bank holidays too and in my old job I'd have to take the day off unpaid as the nursery was shut. we used to get paid double on bhs so Id be losing £90 by not going to work and paying the nursery £35 for them not to look after my son.

alwaysbrassic

The nursery I use work out the monthly charges by charging you for 50 weeks of the year, and dividing this cost by 12 to get a monthly cost. The other 2 weeks of the year they don't charge for are to take into account bank holidays etc.
However, I only used to send my daughter on a monday, so that meant we were missing a higher proportion of sessions than what the discount allowed for.
I changed her day after I worked it out (tight of me I know!)

Seanymph

I moved my children OFF of Mondays for this very reason - other days are never affected as badly. And that was 17 years ago now.

Also, often staff don't get paid for bank holidays - if they do they lose it off their entitlement, so it's a poor argument.