To think accruing 15 days annual leave whilst on maternity leave is not correct

[wowihaveagardennow]

I am at the end of my maternity leave and due to go back in a couple of weeks to my full time job. HR said I've accrued 15 days annual leave.

Can this be correct?

My normal entitlement is 25 days. And I thought we also accrued bank holidays etc.
I was expecting to have accrued 25days+ 8 days bank holiday IE. 33 days.

I don't know if this is relevant but my work only offered SMP and didn't have their own maternity package.

AIBU to think something is amiss with only 15 days accrued annual leave?

Edit to add; I went on mat leave first week of April 2023. The the accrued days is my full accrued days for the entire year I've been off ie. 2023 and 2024

Is that just for 2024? Or 2023 also? When did you go on mat leave?

Bank holidays will only be those you have missed if for 2024? 8 for the year but if your going back now there has only been 4 (or will be by the time you go back in May?)

It could be correct if you were on a negative accrual before you started leave. It would depend on when your work holiday year starts and ends

Oh sorry I just read they only have SMP not their own policy, I would check their wording, and whatever it says on the gov website re SMP

entirely depends on how long you were off and how much you'd taken before you went. If you'd already overtaken leave in comparison to what you'd accrued its quite possible that its right.

If you've been off for a full 12 months then I should have thought that you should have accrued your entire holiday entitlement. Less than 12 months then it should be pro-rata for the months off. When does your holiday year start? Did you take any holiday between the start of the holiday year and your maternity leave starting?

It could be correct. When does your holiday year start/finish? How much of your entitlement did you use before you went on maternity leave?

Really depends how long you been off and when you started and finished and when the holiday entitlement starts. Check the gov website. Not sure re bank holidays as surely that un moveable and if you working that day you get the day off, if you don't you don't. I didn't work Monday so missed all bank holidays.

I honestly don't remember how much I took off before leaving but I don't remember taking that many off. I had also carried over 5 days from the year before.
My holiday year is January to February.
I've taken off the full 12 months for maternity leave (left in April 2023) and she to go back first week of April.

This is obviously impossible to answer without knowing how long you've been off for.

When I was on maternity leave I got paid for bank hols at my normal rate at the time. So for example I got paid for one day in August even though I had exhausted all company mat pay and SMP.

That sounds odd. Ask them why you aren't getting a whole year of allowance plus BHs. Sounds like a mistake - maybe they have you down as having taken some AL, or just an error.

Why wouldn't you just ask them for the calculation and to confirm how much you took before you went off. I bet you took more than you'd accrued before you went off.

You need to check how many holidays you took before you went off. People often use AL at the start of their mat leave - you're bound to have it recorded somewhere. You do accrue stat days too, so you need to be given those. Contact them again and ask for a breakdown of how they arrived at the figure. Were you working FT?

Assume you mean holiday year is Feb to Jan, so let's say you worked 10 weeks of that before going on maternity leave, you'd have been entitled to take 5 days AL during that time. So if you took 10 days you'd have 15 left.

You'll also have accrued 5 days of this year's leave, but your company may be expecting you to take that as holiday at a later date.

AFAIK they don't have to give the full holiday amount but just the statutory amount. I'm not sure on BH. You should have a policy that clearly outlines this though

Are the 15 days from last years holiday? Did you take some of start of time off as AL before switching to Mat leave?
You are now into a new holiday year from Feb so will have this years entitlement to take.

You need to find out how much of your 2023 holiday allowance you'd used before starting maternity.
Ask them to share the calculation with you and then you can ask on here for info on whether it is correct.

Your holiday year can't be Jan-Feb
Does it run feb-feb or jan-jan?
So you will not have accrued any for thus year but you should have this years full allowance.

What date did your actual maternity leave start?
Easter was start of April last year. So if you worked up to 6th, but only started Mat leave on 11th those bank hols will have already been taken.
If you took any leave at the start that won't have carried over...I did this. I took two weeks before my official mat leave started.

Impossible to say without the figures. What you can do is ask your HR department to show you their calculations. If you used up 2023 holiday prior to SMP, which is common to keep your pay coming as long as possible, or if some days didn't carry forward for whatever reason, then you will see it in their calculation.

Once you have checked the dates, you can check here for your rights: https://www.acas.org.uk/your-maternity-leave-pay-and-other-rights/working-out-maternity-pay

Statutory holiday should usually carry over from one leave year to the next, but if it’s in a holiday policy or maternity policy that it will only carry over if it “cannot reasonably be taken” then it’s possible to lose it. Generally not advisable from a discrimination point of view though.

If there were 5 days from 2 previous years then it would be contractual whether it carried over (but usually would be lost).

15 days seems low though for a year of leave that would be impossible to take!

For the bank holidays, it depends what your contract states. It has to be something like 25 days plus bank holidays or something like that otherwise they can get round it.

Acas are quite good for this sort of thing, maybe give them a call.

You cannot be treated less favourably because you have been on maternity leave.

Could you ask for a breakdown, what you were eligible for and what you've used each year?

Oh dear! My holiday year is January to December! What a silly mistake to make! I hope everyone sees this post 😩

Sounds like you had already taken leave during the first months of the annual leave year.

So your entitlement for 2023 is 33 minus whatever you took before Mat leave

Entitlement for 2024 is whatever you've carried from January to your return date

The 5 days from the year before usually have an expiration date eg must be taken with 3 months or lose it which would be before your mat leave started.

You should ask HR to give you a copy of your full calculation and if you aren't happy with it contact ACAS for guidance on how to proceed.

Are you going back part-time and they have mistakenly calculated your unused holiday allowance based on that?

They have to give whatever is in her contract