...to think I still acrue annual leave on maternity leave

[elseIlltellyourfather]

even if I take a year off? Have had a difficult discussion with my boss as he (wanker)thinks I can't use it. I have asked that I stop work on, say 25th July, take one years worth of AL, then start ML immediatly after the AL runs out. Thus, I go back after one year + 1 moth (AL). AIBU or is he makin gthings difficult for me? I am going to see HR next week, btw but doubt they will be any better informed

sorry for typos. Obviously 1 month, not 1 moth too.

YANBU. Think it might go down to statutory holiday rather than contractual during AML (perhaps someone more expert can advise) but you def continue to accrue leave.

I'm sure you still acrue annual leave on ML. But from what you're saying you want to use the A/L before the year has passed.

Can't you start your Mat Leave on 25th July then add on the years worth of A/L at the end. You'd still get the same time off (I think!).

Errr although if some of that month's leave is made up of days you would accrue next year, you'd probably have to wait until after ML and tack them on at the end.

What's your due date? If the baby comes early and before your official ML start date, ML would kick in immediately.

Oh, good point. That would be fine, makes no difference to me what they call the time I have off, just the amount there is!

Sorry xp with Meglet

Yes, you still accrue annual leave while on maternity leave, but you can't use it in the way you're describing afaik. You won't have actually accrued it yet, so can't take a whole year's worth of leave prior to taking a year off. If you do have annual leave saved up you can take that before starting maternity leave, and I believe you can tag leave onto the end of your year off after you come back, but this is probably at the discretion of your manager.

damn I'm slow today! x-posts

You should be able to accrue your annual leave while you're on ML but it may be that your company prefer to pay you for it rather than you taking the time.

Good luck with your HR discussions - mine were useless and kept either giving me wrong information or referring me to the company intranet site, when they'd arranged the meeting! Make sure you get any agreement in writing - just in case.

I know I do, not sure if its law? For example, if I go back in July, I will def be able to use half of my holidays (however, I can use mine any time in the year anyway, dont have to wait for them to accrue)

You definitely accrue it, as you cannot be disadvantaged for being on Maternity leave, but you cannot take what you haven't accrued, so:

You have the right to take this years A/L before you go off but not next years (if you are off for a year, you'll break over a 'holiday' year). That you have the right to take at the end of you leave.

What I would suggest you do is: start you maternity leave when you want to finish. This is because if you're off sick in the last eleven weeks of your pregnancy, your company can chose to start your maternity leave then and you'd then lose you holidays.

Roll over some part of your leave - you're not their to take it and they cannot disadvantge you.

Take that plus some of the next years at the end of your leave. Save at least two weeks for the rest of that year.

You'll need it for paid time off if you're LO is ill - which, if you're putting them in childcare to go back to work, is very likely.

I would also start inrtoducing them to nursery/childminders before you start back for this same reason.

Good luck!

Your, not you. There, not their. Arghh!

Oo, btw, I was off sick for a month before my hols, before my mat leave. if you do this, make sure the doc signs you back on as your hols are due to start!

Thanks a lot everyone, very helpful as ever.

When I went on ml I took the holiday for the year before I left work as once you've completed a year in a job you no longer accrue holiday you automatically have your full entitlement at the beginning of the year. Check what your contract says. Obviously if a new holiday year starts while youre off then that would have to be taken afterwards. That's how it worked out for me anyway.

You do accrue annual leave during maternity leave, I certainly have.

It is exactly the same as if you used all your AL at the beginning of the year and continued to work. I would just look and see if you are allowed to use it at once (i.e. is there a policy that you can only take two weeks at a time). Although it doesn't make a blind bit of difference to the total amount of time I'm off, my work stuck to this rule so had to split AL to before and after.

(Well that's what I would have done if they had told me before I went on ML. Now I'm on a fantastically complicated p/t thing using up AL before the contract year is out so that I don't lose it).

Plus if you're not allowed to carry holiday over into a new holiday year then you'll have to take it before you go.

I was told that you actually can take it upfront, within the relevant holiday year - so you couldn't take days from your 2012 allowance, but you can take whatever is from 2011 prior to going on maternity leave.

It's to do with discrimination, if you weren't pregnant and going on maternity leave, you wouldn't have to wait to accrue your leave before you take it. It's not the case, for example, that if you wanted to take a two week holiday in January then your company wouldn't say no, you've only accrued a day and a half of leave so you have to wait until June, that's not allowed. So they can't apply different rules to you just because you are going on maternity leave and tell you that you that you can't take unaccrued leave (from the relevant holiday year) otherwise they are discriminating against you for being pregnant.

I accrued AL while on ML, and I think that's the normal way.

However, depending on your company policy you may find that you cannot carry holiday over from one year to the next, so you will need to use all this years AL (if you holiday year runs jan - dec) before you start ML. One thing to bare in mind is that if you give birth while on AL your ML immediately starts, and I know in the case of my company I would have then lost my AL.

I did the same as Springboc. A/L year starts in April, I wanted to start Mat leave in June and was expecting to return to work mid March, so I had to use up all my A/L before starting Mat leave or I would lose it.
I ended up being rota'd on for 1 shift a week from April-June, but we were short staffed and they needed me to do extra shifts which I got paid overtime for.
As a result my maternity pay which is based on an average of your last 3 months was fantastic! :O

It's a shame they've changed it and we don't get overtime now we have to do bank shifts instead.

The only downside would have been if I'd have decide to return before March I wouldn't have had any A/L left.

I work in the public sector, it might be different in the private sector. Can you get hold of the maternity policy? It'll say in there what you're entitled to.

once you've completed a year in a job you no longer accrue holiday you automatically have your full entitlement at the beginning of the year

That is not true. You still accrue holiday in exactly the same way.

if you're not allowed to carry holiday over into a new holiday year then you'll have to take it before you go

again, not true. people on mat leave and long term sick are exempt from that.

Ok squeakytoy was true in my experience though. That's all I was commenting on. That's why I said to op to check her contract as I have no idea about other company's policies.

Sorry meant to add I wasn't allowed to carry over the holiday so I had 14 days to take (as already had a few days here and there) so I took a random 4 days off in the time leading up to ml and 2 weeks directly in front of it. Again no dea about what other company's do.