10 Requirements For Hiring a Nanny in Australia

Hiring a Nanny in Australia

Planning a family comes with a long list of wishes and expectations. Some are highly emotional and others have to be practical and detailed. “Who’s going to look after your new arrival?” is clearly right up there.

If you’re going to be employing a nanny, you need to get clued up on all the legal obligations and requirements. A 21st century Mary Poppins has considerably more rights than her namesake had back in 1910.

At Pay the Nanny Australia we’ve come up with an easy-to-digest guide about employing a nanny in Australia. Read on for everything you need to know.

Australia’s National Employment Standards

It is highly likely that the relationship between you and your nanny will be as employer and employee. There is very little wriggle room.

To begin with, you will have to adhere to the conditions surrounding the national minimum wage. As well as this, there are other issues to take into account when you hire people, and these include domestic employees.

The National Employment Standards (NES) are a set of 10 minimum entitlements for all employees in Australia. Here’s the lowdown on each of them.

1. Maximum Weekly Hours

Ordinary hours are normal, regular working hours that don’t attract overtime rates. The maximum number of these hours a person can work varies, depending on whether they are a full-time, part-time or casual employee.

Different types of work have different guidance around hours. The Fair Work Commission (FWC) recognises that most nannies fall under the Miscellaeous Award. Here are the rules around this particular Award:

Full-time Maximum Hours

10 hours per day (unless by agreement)
Average of 38 hours per week
6 Days per week
20 Days over a 28 Day period

Part-time Maximum Hours

10 hours in 1 day
less than 38 hours in a week

When work is full-time, you and your nanny can average hours over more than a week. That means your nanny might work more than 38 hours one week, but less in another. Ordinary hours mean those worked between 0600 and 1830 on weekdays.

When work is part-time or casual, your nanny must have at least 2 hours of work in a row on any one day: less than 2 and you will still have to pay them for a full 2 hours.

Overtime

You can ask your nanny to work reasonable extra hours. For a full-time nanny that means:

Any hours above the 38-hour threshold
Hours that fall outside 0600-1830 on weekdays
Hours worked at weekends or on public holidays

For a part-time nanny that means:

Any hours above the 10 hour day threshold
Hours that are more than their normal agreed hours

It also applies to any hours outside their agreed work times if you give them less than 7 days’ notice unless there’s an emergency. You would typically pay overtime at a higher rate than ordinary hours as outlined in the awards.

For a casual nanny, overtime applies if they work more than the maximum number of ordinary hours per day or per week.

Nannies can refuse to work overtime if it is unreasonable. This could be due to circumstances in which they would feel unsafe or when the notice period was too short, for example.

2. Public Holidays

Some of these will vary in date depending on where you live. Your nanny has an entitlement to these days off as paid leave if they work full or part-time and as unpaid leave, if they are casual.

You can request that your nanny works on public holidays. Regardless of how long they work, you will have to pay them for at least 4 hours of work.

You should also pay your nanny the public holiday rate, which is calculated as a penalty rate at 250% of the minimum hourly rate under the award.

3. Annual Leave

Both full-time and part-time nannies get a minimum of 4 weeks of annual paid leave, based on their ordinary hours of work.

You may have to pay your nanny an additional week of paid leave if you schedule them to work on Sundays or public holidays. Annual is covered under the National Employment Standards

4. Sick and Carer’s Leave and Compassionate Leave

These types of leave are there to let your nanny take time off to help them deal with things such as:

Personal illness
Caring responsibilities
Family emergencies

When your nanny has to take time off because they are ill or injured, you may need to continue paying them. For each year of service, an employee is entitled to 10 days of paid personal/carer's leave. This balance will accrue progressively during the year, dependent on their working pattern

Your nanny has an entitlement to 2 days for each occasion of compassionate leave. This is whenever an immediate family or household member dies or suffers an illness or injury that’s life-threatening. If your nanny is full or part-time, this will be paid leave but if your nanny is casual, then it will be built in to the casual loading rate.

5. Flexible Working Arrangements

If your nanny works full or part-time and if they’ve been with you for at least 12 months, they can request flexible working arrangements in writing. Some of the reasons they might do this are if they:

Are a parent, or have responsibility for the care, of a child
Are a carer, have a disability or are 55 or older

Casual employees can make a similar request after 12 months if they have a reasonable expectation of continuing to work for you on a regular basis.

You can only refuse a request on reasonable business grounds and, if you do, you must give your reasons. A valid reason might be if it would prove too costly, or difficult, to hire another nanny to cover any gaps in care caused by the flexible working arrangements.

Any specific state or territory laws on flexible working that tend to favour an employee trump standard national guidance.

6. Maternity and Paternity Leave

As your employee, your nanny has a right to parental leave after the birth of a child or an adoption. This is as long as they have been working for you for a year.

They also have a right to return to their job. Leave can happen after a nanny, spouse or partner gives birth.

The entitlement is up to 12 months of unpaid leave, although they have the right to request a further 12 months.

7. Community Service Leave

Full-time, part-time and casual nannies can take community service leave for certain types of activities. These include voluntary emergency management activities and jury duty. You would only need to pay this leave when it is for jury service.

8. Long Service Leave

This type of leave tends to vary under the laws in each state or territory. These laws state:

How long an employee has to have been working to get long service leave
How many hours of long service leave the employee gets

Some states and territories include casual nannies as being eligible for long service leave. The average length before an employee is entitled to long service leave varies between 7 years and 10 years.

9. Notice of Termination and Redundancy Payments

If you wish to terminate your nanny’s contract you will need to give them written notice. This is unless the reason is due to serious misconduct. Examples of serious misconduct are:

Causing serious and imminent risk to the health or safety of another person
Fraud, theft, assault, or sexual harassment
A refusal to carry out a reasonable instruction that’s part of the job

Regardless of the circumstances, you would have to make sure that you’re up to date on all payments and benefits up to your nanny’s last day at work. You can also choose to pay your nanny off instead of having them work a notice period.

The payment must be at least the same as what they would have received had they continued to work.

Redundancies are different from dismissals and the rules around them can be complex so it’s always best to consult a professional for help if you’re unsure about the nature of a contract termination.

10. Fair Work Information Statement

You must give your new nanny a copy of the Fair Work Information Statement (FWIS). This should happen before they start their new job.

If your nanny works on a casual basis then you must give them a copy of the Casual Employment Information Statement (CEIS). You can do this in all the usual ways such as by email or sending a link to the PDF.

These documents are really useful. They clearly spell out specific entitlements that are due to all domestic employees, including nannies. They’re an essential read and starting point when you are considering employing a nanny in Australia.

Pay the Nanny Australia to the Rescue!

We know that the rules and regulations around employing a nanny can be quite bewildering. If you take your eye off the ball, it’s not difficult to create problems from the word go.

At Pay the Nanny Australia, sorting out pay, taxes as well as understanding your nanny’s rights are all second nature to us. That means you won’t have to worry that you might slip up by getting your casuals confused with your part-timers, for example.

Get in touch with us now to find out how we can help you through all the hoops that come with employing a nanny in Australia. We’d really appreciate it if you’d give us a like on our Facebook page as well.

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