Leaving after maternity leave - accrued annual leave

[workinggally]

I have decided that I am almost certainly not returning to work following maternity leave.

However have been thinking about the annual leave I've accrued while on maternity leave.

If I don't go back I'll obviously lose it. But it's worth about 8k - and I'm considering going back, taking the leave and then resigning. But not at all sure I could do it as would seem a bit outrageous and unethical (?)

Would it be totally U to go back and take the leave? I'm thinking it would be but just thought I'd check!

Not everyone gets paid their annual leave if you don't take it. I certainly don't - it is very clearly stipulated in my contract though. I would double check your contract.

Personally, I can understand why you would want the holiday pay but then I am amazed we accrue holiday whilst on mat leave anyway (I say this whilst on AL having started back at work on Monday so am loving the benefit :) )

Oh and I'm with Garcia - you can work bloody hard but at 70k its not slavery. You are renumerated for your hours and responsiility. My sympathy has remained level regardless what your salary is.

Maternity leave isn't holiday and you are entitled to accrue holiday pay whilst on maternity leave.

It's not about giving working Mums a bad name, it's about what is legally yours. And small business can claim the maternity pay back anyway.

They can claim back the SMP, not the extra she's had on top ... right?

While I think women who take the money and don't go back are indeed giving the rest of us a bad name (or rather affecting everyone's attitude to all of us) I do understand that things can change in ways one never expected. But oncer they do change you have a moral obligation not to mess your company around I think, and just resign giving them plenty of notice (so now, not when you go back). Not least beucase your maternity cover person might then get to keep their job and they deserve to know so they can plan their lives.

"Not everyone gets paid their annual leave if you don't take it"

Yes they should. You continue to accrue your full contractual holiday throughout maternity leave and they have to pay it you on termination if you leave without taking it. Similarly although companies can say that any extra holiday over and above statutory minimum for employees at work is lost if they don't take it, they are not allowed to not pay basic holiday entitlement. They should ensure employees take it.

And LeggyBlonde no, employer's can't claim back SMP. Once the employee has qualified for it, she gets it even if she then leaves employment before the baby is born.

employerd sorry about the extra '

Oh for crying out loud employers

Flowery that interesting because I am actually losing some AL this year because my work changed their mind about how long I could take off in one sitting. Hence my earlier return to work than I planned. They say we can't carry it over to the next year so I'm out by about 7 days and they've said they won't pay it to me.

I did this - I handed in notice on maternity leave and got my AL in my final maternity pay packet. I felt slightly bad about not returning, so handed in my notice a bit earlier so that I didn't take all the maternity leave.

I thought employers claimed back most (but not all) of SMP for employees.

I didn't feel that I was giving women a bad name and I think its a strange argument. Men tend not to be put in the position of having to choose between their career and parenting ... and yet women call out other women for making the best choices they can. I was 99% sure I wasn't going to return to work - but I couldn't be totally sure until I had the baby. People tend to have a gut instinct but they can change their mind once the baby is here and realise that they really want / need to work - or not.

Having been a manager I never thought to be cross about women not returning after maternity leave. When they took maternity leave I knew it was probably 50/50 about them returning and planned their cover accordingly. To be honest I would far rather someone not return at all than return for 6 weeks (which probably would annoy me a bit).

Don't forget you are entitled to Bank Holiday pay too...

Hate to say it but threads like this do provide some justification why small companies are reluctant to employ women of child-bearing age. Having had a generous maternity leave package (which the company, throught their own negligence cannot claim back) the OP is now concerned with her £8k holiday pay. I've clearly got too much of a conscience.

Sorry perhaps I misunderstood LeggyBlonde earlier, yes employers can claim back all or most of SMP from HMRC, but it can't be claimed back from the woman if she leaves employment in the way maternity pay over and above statutory can.

Springboks a company is allowed to apply its usual holiday rules to women on maternity leave. So if they have a generous holiday allowance but don't allow carry over, or say carried holiday is lost if not taken within 3 months or something, that's fine to apply universally. However a woman is entitled to all her contractual holiday and can't be prevented from taking it. If they didn't allow holiday to be taken before maternity leave started and then applied 'no carry over' rules to that holiday meaning it was effectively lost, that would be unlawful.

Thanks for replies. Btw other women at work have had the maternity package and not returned so not really worried about that but not sure if they got the holiday as well.. probably not I think. But I guess it's probably worth my while doing even if it seems a bit grasping as I might need the money at some point and end up regreting it if I don't.