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Hiring a home-based nanny: instructions for use
For our child, being looked after at home is reassuring. He is in a familiar environment, with all his toys. It also allows you to better respect your rhythm. In the morning, no need to wake him up at dawn to take him to the nursery. If he is sick, put an end to the stress of finding an emergency solution. And often, a very strong bond is created between him and his nanny. On our side, the advantages are numerous. This is the most flexible type of childcare: we set the number of hours we need, which allows us to stick to our working hours. And we don’t have to run in the morning or in the evening to drop off and pick up our child.
Recruit your nanny
On the recruitment side, you can consult the classified ads on the sites that offer this service. If we prefer to be helped in our procedures, we can contact an agent company, such as an association or private company, which will put us in touch with home guards and help us on the administrative side. Finally, word of mouth is a good solution. Because there is no specific training or accreditation issued by the PMI, so it is better to be rigorous in our choice.
To ensure his seriousness, we do not hesitate to ask him for his references. In all cases, it is a relationship of trust. The feeling will be essential in this choice. Another precaution: if the nanny is not a member of the European Union, she must have a work permit, otherwise you risk a heavy fine and a prison sentence. In addition, she must have a Social Security number, essential to complete the monthly declaration. With this type of care, the nanny becomes your employee. Result: everyone has rights and obligations. So, even if special bonds are forged between us, “We must not forget that this is a professional relationship”, warns Katia Passelègue, expert lawyer at the FEPEM (Federation of Particular Employers of France) “In fact, home care is highly regulated by the national collective agreement for employees of the private employer and by the Labor Code. “
Lire aussi : The guide to good manners with your nanny
Terms of the employment contract
The drafting of an employment contract is compulsory for the care of a child under 6 years old. It must be signed at the time of hiring or at the end of the two-month trial period (if a letter of employment has been previously signed by the parties). It is automatically a contract of indefinite duration. To break it, therefore, it will take real reasons – such as our child’s entry into school leading to the elimination of the post, for example. To draw up the contract, a standard document is downloaded from the site: advisers will answer all our questions about the employment of an employee at home. The contract must be as complete as possible : amount of salary, number of monthly hours, employee assignments, etc. More specifically, the nanny must not work more than 48 hours per week over 12 consecutive weeks. But she can do 30 hours one week, then 50 hours the next. To facilitate the count at the end of the month, we note any overrun in a notebook. Another point to define: his tasks. According to the collective agreement, in addition to the custody of the child, she can do housework provided that it concerns him directly. Thus, she can clean the kitchen since your child eats there, or the bathroom since she gives him the bath, but she is not supposed to take care of the parents’ room.
Payment terms
As for the hourly wage, the legal minimum is € 10,21 gross *. Concretely, each month we pay for our home care by transfer or check. Then, at the end of the month, the number of hours she has worked is declared to the Pajemploi center. This organization then calculates the amount of social security contributions and deducts them from our bank account. He also establishes the nanny’s payroll. Furthermore, home care is entitled to paid leave (it acquires 2,5 days per month worked). We must therefore pay her her salary even when she is on vacation. On the cost side, we are not obliged to provide him with a meal or to pay him a meal allowance, but we must participate in his public transport costs (home / place of work). In total, it’s a real budget! To soften the bill, you can opt for shared custody at home: a nanny looks after the children of two families, alternately at each other’s home, or in the same accommodation if one is more suitable. Advantage: the costs are divided by two.
Finally, if you opt for this type of childcare, it is better to bet on communication to ease tensions. We inform our employee as much as possible of her rights and obligations, of the daily organization … We speak to her as soon as a doubt or disagreement appears, to defuse any conflict. In the case of shared custody, it is better to consult the other family to speak with one voice. So many good reflexes so that everything goes as well as possible and that your child makes the most of this “cocooning” type of childcare.
* conventional gross minimum hourly wage for childcare in mainland France on 01/08/2018