Can someone please help me work out my maternity leave holiday entitlement?

[pixiestix]

... because I think my boss is trying to screw me over! I get 28 days holiday a year. When I go on maternity leave I will have already used 20 of these days. When I asked my boss what would happen to the remaining 8 days, and any holiday I will accrue next year while on leave, she told me that maternity leave already took into account holiday days and so to give me anything else would be the equivalent of paying me twice

When I told her that I thought I accrued holiday even though I was on leave, she said that anything I did build up would have to be taken at the end of my maternity leave - it would be absolutely impossible to add anything to the beginning. (Completely contradicting the fact that she had just said I wasn't going to get anything extra!)

I work full time and have been at the company for seven years so I am entitled to their full maternity package of six months full pay, three months SMP.

I am a bit baffled! Can anyone give me any advice please?

Apparently not - I can only take the percentage of holiday I have "earned" so far - so if I work for three quarters of the year before I go on leave then I can take three quarters of my 28 days! Does that make any sense?

Well, if they owe you 8 days then they owe you 8 days. Take them so that you come back for 1 day before your ML starts

Then check out your contract and add on whatever you accrue to the end of your leave - you can't really take it before you've earnt it iyswim.

hmmm I know where I work you can acrue all your holiday, so i'm just going to tack mine on the end of my mat leave, I would see if they have a document somewhere on special paid leave (ours is 50 pages long)! I would say that the 3 quarters thing is only if your not planning on going back, but the majority of bosses would allow leave or even convert it into pay

I had the exact same issue.

You ARE entitled to your holidays! Meaning they are FULL PAID DAYS!!!

I was also told I am not allowed holiday as my maternity leave starts in Jan and finishes end of December. So my office said I cannot carry them over (which is true). So I was advised by ACAS that I could theoretically stop my ML one month earlier and take my holidays which I had to take that year. So at least I will get full wages for 28 days.

So in your case, the days you took for that year, you took already. The rest of the days to the end of your working year MUST be paid to you or they can allow you to carry over to the next working year.

The days you are due which fall in the following working year are also due to you.

Remember, the holidays have to be PAID (e.g. as per your wages).

Your boss is completely wrong. Please call ACAS they will explain to you further.

Thanks LITR and Jaabaar - I thought that she was wrong, but she did the whole thing with a really passive aggressive smile as though she was doing me a great favour by explaining it to me
We do have a maternity policy which they will give to me when I hand over my MatB1 in five weeks - and NOT before. Grrrrr. It makes it so hard to plan anything.
I will check out ACAS and see what they say.

Me again [sigh]

I have spoken with my boss again, and she is now claiming that I will get holiday pay for the 3 months SMP I take next year, but not for the 6 months full pay I get at the beginning. The 6 months, because it is above and beyond the basic rate, supposedly includes holiday pay already, despite the fact it is just my normal wage, and no extra.

This sounds more plausible, but I still have no idea if she is right or not, and I still feel like I am being done out of 8 days holiday!

She's wrong.

But before getting into a big fight with her, wait until you get your MatB1 and the maternity policy. Given the way you have described her, it is not beyond the bounds of possibilty that she will re-write it to make sure it its not "full" pay - but "full pay excluding holidays".

BTW - how do you know that the company policy is six months full pay, three months SMP?

.... and just for the avoidance of doubt, you continue to accrue holiday throughout both periods.

Thanks prettybird. Thats what I thought as well (re the re-writing of the policy). I asked her verbally what my entitlements were so I could start planning my leave - now that I am on story number 3 I wish I had kept my mouth shut and waited to get it all in writing!

Why don't you post your query on the Which?: Legal Service thread that is currently a "sticky"?

Mumsnet Which? Legal Service thread

Fab, thanks prettybird, I hadn't seen that! Have posted on the thread.