AIBU to try to renegotiate KIT days

[MamaSleep]

Hello. I’m after some advice on KIT days.

I am currently on MAT leave and have a series of 8 2-3 hour meetings I want to attend before my return.

My Line Manager agreed I could let these meetings add up to 2 KIT days, however I have just read the following on Maternity Action’s Website:

You can use a KIT/SPLIT day to keep up to date with what has been happening in your workplace while you have been on leave; to attend a training course or staff meeting; to complete a project or to help you settle back into work gradually at the end of your maternity, adoption or shared parental leave.
Even if you only work for part of a day or a couple of hours it will still use up one of your KIT/SPLIT days.

Am I being unreasonable if I go back to my Line Manager and ask if I can use the meetings as individual KIT days rather than adding them together?

I know I should have researched first but… FTM and was slightly overwhelmed in earlier months.

Appreciate any thoughts/advice/experience.

AIBU - you have agreed, leave it.
YANBU - worth asking the question

Your line manager should have known better.

Yes, make them be 8 individual KIT days as you are in on 8 separate occasions. Just point out what you've read. It shouldn't need a renegotiation as they are in the wrong

Brilliant - thank you.

Do I have any rights if they say no? Does it make a difference the meetings are online?

Yes absolutely you should be taking each meeting as an individual KIT day! It's a legal requirement for you to be able to use any individual day that you're undertaking work tasks to be paid as a day's work, but I would give your line manager the benefit of the doubt, as perhaps they don't know the legislation around it, and just email your HR department and ask for email confirmation for the information you've posted on here.

Yes you have rights if you say no.

My understanding is that kit days are entirely elective so you can refuse to do any (within 12 months of the birth). I haven't done any in either maternity leave and don't intend to.

For me, it's too long a commute and far too much bother lugging breast pumps across London just to be in work a few hours. Nah

I can’t see why they would have any issue with this…

Preusmably business is continuing as usual in your absence, and your KIT days are simply a matter of scheduling time in people’s diaries etc (which is easy to rearrange).

KiT days are not compulsory. So you don’t have to cram in a full 10 days worth of work in before you go back. The problem will be you are paid for KiT days at your normal rate, so your company may not pay you for a full day if you’re only doing a meeting for a few hours though but they should pay you your hourly rate. If you want the full day of pay, if that’s what is worth you going in, then use those meeting days and spend a bit of extra time in the office either side of the meeting and catch up with your maternity cover, team changes etc.

Yes they are 8 individual KIT days - I don't think they have to pay you a full day though. It's more than there are only a certain number of times that they are allowed to call you in when on leave

Happy to be told I'm wrong though

Assuming you are paid for the work done I'm not sure why it would be to your advantage to have 8 KIT days rather than two.
Post edited as my first comment was incorrect

It’s not really a case of “negotiate” - legally, if there are 8 days on which you’re doing some work then you are taking 8 KIT days.

But…this doesn’t mean you’re automatically entitled to 8 days of pay. You’d normally just be paid for the hours worked, so 2-3 hours on each day.

It is fine to take them as individual days but you will only get paid for the hours worked.

days are not compulsory and so it doesn’t matter if you take less hours then you are entitled to.

Yes that should be 8 individual KIT days. It could be that your LM just hasn't line managed anyone who has gone on mat leave before so they just didn't know how it worked. But the guidance should support what you are saying. It should be 8 days.

If you look at maternity action it states:

Working for part of a day or even a couple of hours will use up one of your 10 KIT days or 20 SPLIT days. You will usually only be paid for the hours worked and you need to agree what you will be paid with your employer in advance. A day's work will be the normal hours or shift patterns at your workplace.

So, in theory your employer could be doing you a favour (if not exactly by the book!) if you wanted to do more than 10 of these meetings, you could combine them and then you wouldn’t have to use up all your kit days.

For me, and everyone else I know who did KIT days (in other sectors) they got paid a full day each day they worked, even if it was only a couple of hours.

KIT days are not compulsory but they are fully paid. I intend to use them solely for that reason.
Use them separately, OP.

Oh this is really helpful. Just to be clear…

So if I took them as 8 days to do 8 meetings I would only get paid for the two-three hours of the meeting and not the whole day?

Whereas if I take them as 2 days I still have 8 days I can take?

I need to do them unfortunately to top up the final three months of no pay

Your employer has to agree to the days and pay for them. Some employers will pay you an hourly rate, others will class a day’s attendance at work as a fully kit day regardless of how many hours you complete that day.
You need to confirm it with your employer!
Employees can work up to 10 days during their maternity or adoption leave. These days are called ‘keeping in touch days’. Keeping in touch days are optional - both the employee and employer need to agree to them.
The type of work and pay employees get should be agreed before they come into work. The employee’s right to maternity or adoption leave and pay is not affected by taking keeping in touch days

So based on this if they’re already agreed to me adding them up to get paid for two days, they’re not going to then decide they’ll pay me a day’s rate for doing a couple of hours?

In my experience I got paid full days despite only working a few hours (meetings, coffee with my director, team afternoon, interview etc).

In your case 8 meetings across 8 days I'd expect to be paid for 8 full days.

Oh that’s fab. I suppose it’s worth asking the question.

As I say though, they’ve agreed to add the hours together to make two days so I assume now if I wanted to not add them I’d just get paid for the hours worked.

To me it sounds like they are trying to help you if you know you want to maximise the days. In your scenario (for ease I’ll assume £20 an hour for 8hrs a day):
8 x2hr meetings is 8 Kit days = £320 with 2 Kit days spare (then two more meetings at £80 if you are just going in for a meeting). Total £400

They are offering:
8x2hr meetings at 2 Kit days = £320 with 8 Kit days spare (potential £1280 if you are able to attend that many meetings. Total £1600

If they are being funny about making you split your time over days, they may be more than happy with your suggestion of taking a full day kit day so they only have to pay you 10x2 hrs, rather than a possible 10x8 hrs (from my scenario above).

Your manager is wrong you can’t add up all the hours on different days to equal 2 days. Surely if you want to get a whole days pay you need to do a whole days work? I think logging in for 2-3 hours and being paid all day would be unusual.

But OP they’re not allowed to add them together - if you did that and then worked on another 3 days then you’d have triggered the end of your mat leave for going over the KIT day allowance.

Whether you get paid for just the time worked or full pay for each KIT day is negotiable with your employer, but the definition of what constitutes a KIT day absolutely isn’t.

Oh. A PP suggests she was able to do this earlier in the thread.