Mat leave questions

[radioactiveimagination]

I am currently on mat leave from my part-time job. I’d like to stretch out my mat leave as long as possible so probably going back early next year and was planning to use my unused holiday from before I went on leave (about 20 days which because I am PT will effectively give me an extra month off).

Question 1: Am I right in thinking it’s OK to roll AL over to use after mat leave ends?

Question 2: Would it be cheeky to use some of next years’ holiday allocation as well to give me another few weeks off? So in effect I would be on AL for the last couple of months before I return. Would an employer frown on that?

I work for the NHS and have always taken annual leave before I've gone off then whatever accrued whilst off gets taken before I start back. So this time I had a month of annual leave, a years maternity and will use 3 weeks annual leave at the end

Think you can only use up leave accrued to date. If you "borrow" from next year how will you cover holidays and any unexpected circumstances with childcare?

Annual leave accrues during mat leave. Speak to them but avoid taking next year's allowance as you may need it for baby's illnesses and appointments.

Question 1: is fine, almost everyone I know does that. I’m on my second maternity leave and will be doing it again.

Question 2: you’ll need to check with your employer if this is possible. My employer doesn’t allow us to “borrow” leave from the following leave year.

Do many employers allow people to use next year's leave allowance in advance?

Your current year's annual leave allowance has accrued whilst you're on mat leave, so you have that to use. I think I'm right in saying you accrue bank holidays too (eg if you've been on mat leave since the beginning of May that's three days: two May bank hols and one August).

It's a while since I had a baby, and so things may have changed, but my employer expected you to use up leave accrued prior to mat leave before mat leave started. You could only roll over leave accrued during your mat leave itself. And potentially, yes, you could use the next years leave (but I'd advise against that as it means no other time off for the whole of the year, and I'm sure you will want to take holidays etc).

So yes you could run it all together, but needed to take the leave from before mat leave first, otherwise you would lose it at the end of the holiday year. So most people took annual leave(from before mat leave) then mat leave, then annual leave that accrued during mat leave, and then back to work, saving current year leave to be booked as normal. Alternatively, some people go back on a (more) part time basis, and use up their accrued leave that way.

Check your employers policy to see what they say.

It’s not automatic that you can use AL at the end of your mat leave, it is at employers discretion. Many employers prefer it as it’s less disruptive, but it’s not a right. Check with your boss.

Thanks for your replies everyone. Sorry, maybe I wasn't clear enough, we get a certain number of days holiday per year starting January so if I go back in March I should get my usual amount of AL to use when I want. So I would be using 2018's days that I didn't use and also some of 2019's days (not all of them though, as someone kindly pointed out, I might need some days for childcare crises etc.!)