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

I wasn’t paid for my KIT days during my first mat leave, I queried this with HR but received no payment instead they tried to bamboozle my line manager & I with HR jargon. Days were agreed in consultation with my line manager. I gave up arguing with HR. I didn’t do KIT days after my 2nd & 3rd because of this.

Legally they cannot do this they have to count as one day allowance (they can pay you for 2 hours each) but they would count as one of your days (or if you have taken shared paternity a half day. They legally cannot add them up.

I’m currently doing KIT days and work for a business on a smaller scale. I can split them however I see fit because obviously I have to arrange child care etc however if I was only doing half a day, I would only get paid for half a day. You would be paid for your hours worked just like when you normally work.

Go back to your policy as that will be clear on pay.

Quite often with KIT days it depends on the place of work if I wanted a full day of pay I would have to do a full day for a KIT day and the form even had start time and end time on it!

They should be 2 separate KIT days but probably not full day of pay (depending on your policy) so it's best to read that and decide from there

At my workplace we offset against the statutory pay, but calculate 1 day stat as 1/5th of the weekly amount and offset that rather than the full week's statutory against 1 day's pay. I thought we were a bit harsh!

I also think it's obvious that she's trying to help you. She will regret doing so no doubt!

they should be individual days but you are only paid for the hours you work/in. Maybe your manager was trying to support you so had some left over? I don’t know if that is actually allowed but see what they say?

@Schoolchoicesucks I was so angry about our policy but nobody except payroll understood it. Managers and HR all assumed I had been paid wrongly. I won a grievance about it in the end but didn’t get the money - I work for NHS and our pay is set by law so they couldn’t vary it although they acknowledged I had been misled. I got extra annual leave instead but I only worked the KIT days for money!

Yes absolutely and your manager should’ve known this.

If they say no then I’m pretty sure that’s going against the law.

what is KIT?

KIT = keeping in touch days.

My company pay you for a full day regardless of how many hours worked. I did it last year at the end of my maternity. I was paid my full 10 KIT days even if id been in for an hour or so. It was all set out in our company policies and also I was sent a letter whilst on maternity with details of how I could use them. Maybe its not the usual thing to do but can definitely happen. You need to speak with your manager / HR to confirm what is in their policy.

This is the same as my (large global) company. The UK maternity leave policy states that any hours worked during one of the 10 KIT days will be entitled to a full day's pay.

I have used these 10 full days pay for sporadic meetings, or online learning, email clearing up etc on both maternity leaves, and only hiccup was that my "full day" is longer hours than full time staff, so they'd underpaid slightly, which HR sorted out on my return to work. I just had to log exactly what I'd done so my manager had proof I'd done some work and not Just logged on and off again.

Good luck! It does sound however that as a small start up, there may not be a comprehensive maternity leave policy in place, or potentially an hr department to query with x

Completely fine to ask to use the meetings as individual kit days. Two comments though:

1. The 8 kit days are 8 days separate days - the hours on those days can be negotiable between you and your employer. However your wage for your KIT days should reflect the hours you work, so if you decide your "day" should only be a 2 hour meeting, then expect to be paid for 16 hours, not 64 hours (8, 8 hour days) or whatever.
2. The idea of kit days is that they are to help you keep up with what you need to know for returning to work. Do you have anything else it would be useful to see/ask/learn? Yes you could just do 2 hour days, but this is your chance to be well prepared for going back, if you are going to need to have help, use the kit days as help and preparation, don't just use 8 hours out of 64 possible hours, and then go back unprepared, as that will make you look bad and be unhelpful.

Wish I'd known this. I didn't take any

Seems some confusion on here.

It would be illegal for you to return to the office over 10 times on separate occasions and continue to be on mat leave. If you do this then by law your maternity leave ends.

KIT leave can't be put together as they are suggesting. This is an under the table way of trying to pay you less money.
You should be paid for each meeting. Let's face it, when you go in you'll be chatting to Pete, having a coffee etc. Lots of companies don't do anything productive on KIT days. It's up to them to find something for you to do take up the half day or similar.

They don't need to pay you the full day and can just pay a set amount of hours. I'd ask for an update on your projects or to do a bit of online training to make the time up to haf a day.

I'm just checking you WANT to go to these meetings and aren't being told to because they can't make you go in.

You could do that but you will only get paid for the number of hours you ‘work’ for these meetings so you’ll get 2 hours pay (if that’s how long the meeting are) for each of the 8 KIT days,
you don’t get a full days pay if you’re only working for 2 hours. I’d stick with the original plan of combining them to 2 KIT days of 8 hours in total then do some
more training/clinical shifts with the other 8 KIT days you have left.

I worked for NHS and was paid only for hours worked during KIT days. Also, do not do KIT days during your paid maternity or your maternity pay for that day is taken off you. Maybe your employer is planning to log your 2 fictional days during your unpaid mat leave for your benefit.

Hi! I hope the following link from HMRC website itself will clarify this for you. If you work 1h a day as a KIT day, you are entitled to be paid for full day - it’s legal requirement - please see extract below:

The employer has no right to demand that KIT work is undertaken and an employee does not have to do it. Before any work is done, you must agree with your employee:

• what work they’ll be doing
• whether the KIT days are used in a row, one at a time or in blocks — any work on any day (even an hour) will count as a whole KIT day
• how much they’ll be paid for the work they do

Your manager is probably not aware of that. From my experience, a lot of HR departments are not either. In my company it was the external payroll provider who pointed it out to us, even „adding up hours” was already pre-agreed. However, you need to agree the pay in advance - they do not have to agree to pay you your normal hourly rate, equally if they do not, you do not have to agree to do KIT days.
If I was you, I’d be cheeky and do all the KIT days as discussed and then send them the link stating that actually you should be paid for full 8 days.

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/statutory-maternity-pay-employee-circumstances-that-affect-payment

I think OP said they were remote meetings, so won’t be going into the office at all.

@Liyah3 I dont think they do have to pay for a full day. It will be counted as 1 KIT day but you may only get paid for the number of hours you work.

I work as a finance manager and while preparing payroll last December, it was pointed out to me by our payroll provider which we outsource the payroll to, that a lady who came for 1h meeting during her KIT day, should be paid for full day - they send me the link that I posted earlier. Then they also said, we are not allowed to add up hours from different KIT days. They are one of the biggest London payroll company, so I trust they know the legal aspects of maternity leave and KIT days.

@Liyah3

You have stated that:-

If you work 1h a day as a KIT day, you are entitled to be paid for full day-it’s legal requirement-please see extract below:

I can’t see anywhere in the ‘extract below’ where it says it’s a legal requirement to pay full days even if you work only an hour?! Can you cut and paste that bit?

Maternity Action state that:

My understanding- though by no means an expert in the area- is that KIT days are optional, so both employee and employer needs to agree then and determine pay for the time done. So yes, you can do 8 x 2-3 hour meetings and count it as 8 KIT days in total (I’m not sure if they can bundle them
up to 2 days or not) but they don’t have to pay you for the whole day- they can pay you for hours worked. I think is unreasonable to work for 2 hours and expect to be paid for the full day- nice bonus if your employer agrees, of course, but I think it is also perfectly reasonable if they pay your hourly rate. Especially as KIT days are not compulsory, though I understand why they can be viewed as beneficial for both sides.