Can Nursery Charge Me for Extra holidays?

plh56

I've recently sent my son to a nursery 2 days per week (Monday and Tuesday) as my wife has returned to work part time.

When I was looking at nurseries I was surprised to find that it is common practice with nurseries to charge for holidays even when they're closed. While this seems outrageous to me it was in the terms for all my local nurseries so not much I can do about it, so I had to accept I would have to pay for all the Monday bank holidays even though they will not be looking after my son.

In the contract at my chosen nursery as expected it states we must pay for holidays when they're closed, but then it also only mentions that they are closed on public holidays and 3 staff training days per year.

However, recently they have told my wife they will also be closed over Christmas from 24th December to 2nd January. This was a shock to us as it wasn't mentioned before now until after we signed up, and as the 24th is a working Tuesday, 30th is a working Monday and 31st is a working Tuesday that means 3 more days to pay for for no care on top of the known bank holidays and staff training days!

Can this be legal, and is there anything I can do about it if they charge me for these days as they've stated they can charge for holidays when closed already? It seems to me the contract is very unfair as if they can it would mean they can close as often as they like and they can still charge us...

unholyangel

They shouldn't be doing this - not least because it disproportionately affects some parents (those putting their children in on a monday & friday). They should be working those holiday costs into the general day rate. So worked out as an annual cost then split evenly over days they will be open.

Plus generally being charged for something thats not being provided would be an unfair term. But given most nurseries do it, you'll face an uphill battle and may then be prevented from using the nursery of your choice.

Nor can they retrospectively alter the agreement. So if they didn't tell you at the time of entering they would be closed over christmas then they can't now change the terms without being liable for your losses. But again, you may be prevented from using the nursery of your choice.

Fire_Fox

You got the short end of the stick, but not deliberately. IMO add up how many days paid but lost, how many days paid and service received.

Polite but firm letter to the business owner/ manager pointing out the inequity, asking for some recognition of the poor ratio of open to closed days. They may be fair with you when the facts are in black and white.

If they are not you can formally dispute and refuse to pay.

LadyDee

If they are not open on bank holidays they probably still have to pay their staff, so I would assume that's the rationale behind the charge. As the poster above says, it would seem more equitable to build those days' charges into the ordinary daily rate, but it could make their daily rate look more expensive than other nurseries.

FtbDreaming

You'll find Mondays are always quiet days in nurseries for this very reason. Is there no way one of you could change your working days to any other day.

Ive had 3 kids through nursery and always done tue-friday as there are so many bank holidays its not worth it.

Aylesbury_Duck

FtbDreaming wrote: »

You'll find Mondays are always quiet days in nurseries for this very reason. Is there no way one of you could change your working days to any other day.

Ive had 3 kids through nursery and always done tue-friday as there are so many bank holidays its not worth it.

Where do you live? In England there are four bank holiday Mondays, plus perhaps two more if Christmas (and then New Year) fall on a Monday, but that's only every seven years or so.

plh56

FtbDreaming wrote: »

You'll find Mondays are always quiet days in nurseries for this very reason. Is there no way one of you could change your working days to any other day.

Ive had 3 kids through nursery and always done tue-friday as there are so many bank holidays its not worth it.

Unfortunately not, as key meetings are on Monday for my wife's work

plh56

Fire_Fox wrote: »

You got the short end of the stick, but not deliberately. IMO add up how many days paid but lost, how many days paid and service received.

Polite but firm letter to the business owner/ manager pointing out the inequity, asking for some recognition of the poor ratio of open to closed days. They may be fair with you when the facts are in black and white.

If they are not you can formally dispute and refuse to pay.

Thanks for the advice, I will do this. The problem is it seems there is no formally written place where the holidays are listed so they can make it up as they go along. As far as I know right now there's only the public holidays, 3 training days (but they won't tell us when these are until near the time - just have to hope they're not on Monday or Tuesday too!), and the 24th December to 2nd January holidays which we've just found out about.
The contract would seem to allow them to to decide to have other holidays whenever they want though, and provided they tell us at least a month ahead (to give us a chance to give our 1 month notice to cancel our contract), we still have to pay for them if they fall on the days we're contracted into (Monday and Tuesday). I have a hard time understanding how such a contract could be legal as so one-sided but maybe it is, and they're not doing anything technically wrong (just morally wrong imo)?

boo_star

Aylesbury_Duck wrote: »

Where do you live? In England there are four bank holiday Mondays, plus perhaps two more if Christmas (and then New Year) fall on a Monday, but that's only every seven years or so.

If Christmas falls on a weekend then it'll be an extra 2 days for Christmas Day and Boxing Day and another day for New Years Day.

That happens more often than once in 7 years.

flooz-ie

Our nursery gave us days in lieu to use for the days we paid for but didn't get due to bank holidays etc.
Maybe you could suggest this?
Can you talk to any other parents at the nursery too? If several parents are all complaining about the same issue then it would put them under more pressure to address it. We managed this regarding food (too much sugar) successfully.

Aylesbury_Duck

boo_star wrote: »

If Christmas falls on a weekend then it'll be an extra 2 days for Christmas Day and Boxing Day and another day for New Years Day.

That happens more often than once in 7 years.

Yes, you're right. So that's four bank holiday Mondays plus one or two more every few years. I make that 5 in 2020 and again in 2021. Not the "so many" bank holiday Mondays OP talks about.