Returning to work after maternity leave

[Pinklilly]

Hi all, I’m not sure what category this should be in but thought in parenting I may catch people who returned to work after having children.

i am currently on 52 weeks maternity leave and I work in the NHS. Our annual leave runs from 1st April to 31st March.
i am due to return to work at the end of September and will have accrued a year’s worth of annual leave. My plan was to use this leave to create a shorter working week. Ie work mon-thurs and Fridays as annual leave at 6.5 hours. Until my leave finishes (44 weeks)

I have spoken to my manager and she was fine with the plan however she spoke to HR who have said I have to use up the accrued annual leave by the end of march (they can allow me to carry over 5 days but not more than that). In theory I understand this but it seems unfair as if my maternity leave started in April and I was returning in April I would have the whole year to use the leave. So it almost feels like depending on when your child is born is how you can flex this which doesn’t seem equal.
i really get on with my manager so I don’t want to come across difficult. Does anyone know where I stand or if my point about April leave is valid?
thanks everyone!

i think this is pretty typical. I plan to use mine to extend my mat leave by 6 weeks. Sept to April is still considered a reasonable amount of time to use the leave - that's 2/3rd of the year. Could you add a few weeks onto your mat leave and then do shorter weeks

Totally standard. I had a load accrued and even though I took a full month back on full pay as annual leave before I physically returned I still couldn't use it all before the new leave year started and lost a bit.

I'm NHS and was always told all accrued leave had to be used before returning to work so I'm surprised at the offer you have!

There's always going to be some inconsistency re time of year. I'm due in a few weeks and will have less total time off than with my 1st child (born later in the year), purely because I haven't had the time from April to accrue annual leave prior to commencing mat leave (whereas w/ my first I had 2/3 weeks of accrued leave taken at the beginning that didn't impact my subsequent mat leave).

Thats pretty standard. I’m using my leave to extend my maternity. I would pick your battles if I were you. Could you maybe have an easy 5/6 months and just work 3 days a week instead of 4?

I got 12 months after my return to work to use the annual leave that accrued during my mat leave. My annual leave runs jan-dec and my mat leave ended in August but I went from mat leave to sick leave and took 3 months to work up to 4 days a week when I formally switched from full time to 4 days a week. By this point I had 60 days annual leave and had I been forced to take them I would have some how managed to fit 60days leave into December!

It might be worth approach pregnant and screwed for the legality of this. My friend was forced to take all of her annual leave for the year she started her mat leave before she started her mat leave which I believe they aren't allowed to do.

Sounds standard for NHS. Feels like it's to make HR's job easier and not not create precedent though.

My first was born in September. It was pretty great, as I had full time annual leave, but returned part time. I tacked on a couple of weeks after the 52 weeks, and pretty much took what felt like every other week off until it was gone.

My second was tougher. He was due right at the end of March. I somehow had to use an entire year's worth of annual leave in 3 days or lose it. I shortened my maternity leave by 6 weeks and took the entirety of the annual leave in one big block. Meant that while I technically returned in mid February, I didn't actually return to work until the start of April.

Had to take all annual leave before going onto maternity leave too. Though as my September baby came earlier than expected, the two weeks I was supposed to take immediately before maternity leave were allowed to be carried over.

I had to use mine between July and September so I did 3 days a week but still didn’t manage to use all of it unfortunately (I couldn’t easily extend my mat leave as there was a particular event I needed to be back for otherwise I would have done that). You might need some days for nursery illnesses too. I have taken a few unofficial days leave the following year although I appreciate there are very few jobs where you can do this.

Wow you're lucky you can do it until April! I work for NHS and have to take all my accrued annual leave at the end of mat leave before I return to work.

Hi all thanks so much for replying.its so helpful to get other experiences and its really given me perspective. It shows that it is skewed a little depending on when your child is born but sounds like it’s not an unreasonable ask! I will extend my maternity delay childcare starting and then do a shorter working week until April.

thank you all again