Hi all,
I was wondering if someone could help me with an issue about ML and accrual of bank holidays. I was recently made aware that one of my colleague's who is on ML had queried her maternity pay with HR as it was more than she expected. When she call HR she was told there was a payment for bank holiday included, hence it being more than expected. She queried a previous maternity leave when she hadn't received any payment for bank holidays and was told that it wasn't generally paid then but she did get a back dated payment for the first ML in 2010.
I was also off on ML in 2010 and didn't get any BH payment or accrual of leave - I queried it yesterday with HR and was told that accrual of BH leave was only added to relevant policies in 2012 and before that it wasn't company policy so that's why I didn't get it. I have looked at employee handbook and maternity policy from that time, and there is nothing in there that mentions BH specifically, it just generally refers to" leave" e.g "Your annual leave will continue to accrue during your maternity leave......................."
Can my work claim that as there was no specific reference to BH accrual in the relevant documents and that it wasn't company policy at that time that I wasn't entitled? Trying to draft a response that is clear about my rights but doesn't upset HR and I'm stuck!