I need help from all of you please. I have a maid she's been working for 5 years, I give her 2 weeks paid vacation, she works Monday and Friday from 1p-6p and Tuesday and Thursday from 9a-6p, she is off Wednesdays and Sundays and 2 Saturdays a month she works 6 hours helping with my son.
I give her, Thanksgiving and Christmas Day off; but I need to know if I should give her legally other Holidays?
She mostly works cleaning the house and she is rarely with my son.
Please I need advice since we have started with misunderstanding like today 12/26/11 she thought it was a Holiday.
I pay her legally by check and I have to pay $87 service fee to this company to issue the bi-weekly check.
Thanks so much for your help!
P.
I want to thank you so very much for your interesting replies! my maid works by the hour and as stated before I pay her with a check from a payroll company twice a week.
I don't have a contract, but I'm thinking to put one together, since this have changed this past year with her new boyfriend.
She was hired 5 years ago when I was still married and had a major corporation and she was employed by the company who handles several restaurants, so she was part of the "restaurant staff" and as you might know, the waiters etc. don't get vacations paid, no holiday's except maybe Thanksgiving and they get a minimum salary and the "real" money is the tips that they get.
I was paying her a good salary, she has 3 days off a week (her choice) since she cleans 2 other homes; but with the new boyfriend it started with the holidays. She gets 2 weeks of paid vacation, 4th of July, Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day and of course New Years Eve and New Years Day. I still don't know which other Holiday's she is supposed to get, since she was working most of the holidays.
I don't have a huge house, but I do have some health problems, I need to go to doctors and I go to Physical Therapy 5 days a week. I have a nanny for my son and she only works 3 hours in the afternoon to help him with homework, help him with the bath and I put him to bed.
So this is my story.
Thanks again for your support!
P.
The legal federal holiday is today. Because the Holiday is on a sunday the government celebrates it today. Same with New Years. Since she is already off on Sunday the holiday given would be today.
I don't know about legally, but since Christmas was on a Sunday and that was her day off, I would think you would owe her an extra day off is Christmas is normally a paid holiday for her. I would ask her agency. Is there any agreement with her in writing as to her hours and paid time off? i would tend to lean towards giving her the benefit of the doubt if she is a good and loyal employee of 5 years. Good help is hard to find.
Today is the observed day for the Christmas holiday for many working people. If she were to work in an office, bank, the government, etc., she would get the day off with holiday pay.
Either way, I think giving her the day off with pay is a nice holiday gesture.
She is a maid but works that many hours cleaning your house? I'm confused. How does any house of any size require that many hours of cleaning on a weekly basis?
But I also think she should be off on 12/26/11 - since it was a Federal holiday and she is only cleaning your house. I'm sure it could stand some things being done right after the holidays, but would you expect to work the day after Christmas?
Run a vacuum and a broom and it will be fine until she comes back.
You're not legally required to give her a paid holiday today, but it's a nice gesture. My office did not have today off (but I think we're the only ones, and mostly because the people who run the company are kind of jerks about this stuff - they weren't here today, but the rest of us had to be, and everyone spent the day on Facebook goofing off). My daycare lady took the day off, and we still had to pay her, per our contract, and then find someone else to do the child care. It's fairly common to have a paid weekday holiday when the federal holiday falls on a weekend (4th of July, Christmas, etc).
I don't blame her for thinking she had today off. If I were you, I would go through the 2012 calendar and identify her days off.
Do you also have her cook? I sure hope so, since she doesn't watch your son much. If you have a huge house, I understand if it takes her extra time to clean, but still, I hope she is cooking for you.
Dawn
Most employers also give the day off on Christmas Eve, the day after Thanksgiving, the day after Christmas, and the day after New Years. I would provide her with a calendar, much like the school year calendar.
Unless you have a written agreement of some sort that specifies otherwise she should have been at work today. Yes, big employers to give a "holiday observed" when the actual holiday falls on a weekend, but that is not mandatory and it's for you to decide.
I would suggest that you set up a written agreement that specifies which days are paid holidays and what happens if it falls on a weekend. That way you are both clear about what is expected..
Good luck.
The big ones for most employers are Xmas, Thanksgiving, New Years Day, Independence Day, Labor Day and Memorial Day. I would of course check your contract and the precedent established over the past 5 years but these would be good to start for paid holidays. I wouldn't do a blanket "bank holiday" schedule b/c that includes a lot of holidays like Columbus Day and President's Day. If you establish paid holidays and the actual holiday falls on her scheduled day off, I think you still have to provide her with a bonus day off (usually the day directly preceding or following it).
MrsL'sRocketlaunchers - I wish employers routinely gave Xmas Eve, the day after Thanksgiving and the day after Xmas but I've never worked for one of them! And my husband works for a federal agency and even he doesn't get those off. I think many people take those off as voluntarily vacation but the majority of businesses don't usually just give them away.
There are no actual required holidays. It's up to the employer unless there is a contract or a union.
