Holiday entitlment before maternity leave

[curlyclaz13]

I am due on June 9th and had planned on starting maternity leave June 1st and returning January next year. As I will have not taken all of my holiday before I leave I was planning on using it up before I start ML. Today Boss has told be I can only use the pro rata amount of leave and the rest I have when I return, our holiday year is Jan-Dec so I will have to carry it over to next year (she has never allowed this for anybody else under any other circumstances) I am fairly sure she will decline my offer of part time work so I have a feeling I will be out of a job come January anyway.
I was of the understanding that as I am still employed I can take the whole years holiday before I leave ?

Its unreasonable for your request to be denied. Given that you will accrue holiday whilst on maternity leave, they gain nothing through doing this. With people on maternity leave where I work, they have the option of taking all leave due til december before maternity pay kicks in (obviously subject to rules, doesn't always work if babe arrives early). Any accrued leave not taken is automatically paid in December.

If you have a rule that you cannot carry over holiday from one year to another it makes less sense! Do you have H R where you work?

No HR as I work for a small business so the owner is my boss and I am the first pregnant woman to have worked there in 25 years. I have legal cover in my professional fees so will call them on my day off for advice just trying to get my facts straight asap. She say's she has rung the FSB for advice but I know she has got things wrong in the past after taking advice from them.

update: it looks like I am right. working time directive says all leave has to be taken in one year. gov website seems to back this up. no special circumstances for maternity as I guess it would be discrimination ! yet to. Speak to boss but will do tomorrow hopefully it goes ok.