Teachers on Maternity and accruing holidays

[Sonnet18]

Any ideas on the above?! I've been off since the beginning of May and going back at the beginning of April. I've heard loads of mixed answers to holidays and holiday pay. The council where I work are a bit rubbish and said I would get a letter "later on" but I'm looking to work out my return date (to get baby into nursery) and also to see if I will get any holiday pay ( apparently some councils pay you instead of giving days off)

Any thoughts (and no comments on how many holidays teachers get please!) would be much appreciated!

I never got any holiday back or paid in lieu. I think it was factored into the maternity package.

For some reason, teachers seem to be one of the only professions that don't get this accrued holiday. I don't know how they can get away with it tbh, but maybe as a pp said, it's factored into your package.

My dsis and other teachers I know have returned to work one year exactly from the day their ML started. No accrued holiday. You can manipulate it a small amount, eg my sisters baby was due end of August- she started m leave on her due date, and will return on the 2nd week of July til the End of term, meaning the 6 weeks are then paid work rather than unpaid M Leave.

In contrast, I am an FE teacher. I had a full year m leave, accrued 8 weeks paid holiday which I used before I returned, (plus another 1.5 weeks while I was on my accrued leave), so eventually had approx 14.5 months of maternity leave.

Teachers do not accrue holiday pay on Mat leave.

My understanding is you don’t accrue it as a teacher except if you don’t return to work - then you get paid for it.

Sorry and thennit depends on when you finish too!

I’m a teacher and have had 3 maternity leaves and have never accrued holidays or been paid in lieu.

Teacher don’t get paid holidays beyond the legal minimum and so don’t get to add their holiday to the end of maternity.

You can set your return date for the first day of the holiday and get the holidays off and return on the first day after the holidays.

Yes. I work in Scotland. It's complicated though.

Of the 13 weeks holiday, only 40 days within that are actually paid holidays. The other days are designated school closure days and are unpaid. These were the changes to our contract in the last big upheaval. The accrual of leave when on maternity was the primary reason for this change in order to still comply with the EU directive without costing a fortune to the LAs.

So, after both mat leaves of 12 months, I had the 40 days accrued leave to take.

As other have said contrary to the belief that we get 13 weeks paid holiday, teachers are only paid for the legal minimum holidays.

Teachers are not actually paid for holidays, pay is for the 190 days worked which is then divided into 12 equal chunks (to help us budget our pay for over the summer when technically we're not being paid)
Shockingly this does mean if you have a baby at the very start of the summer hols you don't get some of your previous years money
I planned my baby to be due September onwards because of this

As said above teachers do not get paid holidays.

Everyone is entitled to 28 days holiday per year and the year beginning and end is set by the company. A teacher holiday times run from Sept-Aug, so if you went on mat leave in May you already had half term, Christmas, half term, Easter and possibly another half term which adds up to more than 28 days. If you go back in April, you will then have half term and the summer holidays which again makes more than 28 days. Technically we do accrue holiday but you have to take it during 'school closure periods' so we can't add it to the end of our mat leave.
That's my understanding of it anyway, happy to be corrected if I'm wrong! Hope it makes sense too.

Well explained Navy. You only accrue if you miss out on your 28 days hol, because you were on mat leave, during that school year. It’s very unusual for this to happen because of the way the holidays fall and how frequent they are. If you were not to return to your job then they would owe you some holiday time (from September to whenever you officially leave) but you would then have to pay back any enhanced maternity pay that you received.

Should add, they would only owe you a pro rated rate of the 28 days. They would not owe you for all the holidays that actually happened.

But future you can play the system a bit and return to work just before the next lot of summer holidays and get paid for them

EG is baby is born July 15th and you go on Maternity leave on the 10th, you could return 12 months later just before the holidays start, do a few days work and then get another 6 weeks of 'leave' which would I suppose be the holiday you we're 'owed'.

But that's reliant on quite specific dates and timings.

You don’t have to go back and do a few days/weeks work. You can set your return date as the first day of the holidays and get paid in full for them. Also important to note, if you have chosen to go back part time you can go back at the start of a holiday full time and then start your flexible working from the start of the next term. So if anyone is requesting part time, make sure it states from the start of a term and not from your point of return (if this falls during or at the start of a holiday).

PolkaDot that's a good point on both parts. I've always gone back a few days before just to catch up etc but you are right that you don't have to.

Thanks everyone. I know we don't get paid for hols- it was the 40 days I had heard about. This is my second mat leave and I did accrue holidays last time (about 6 days) amd I only took 7 months. I was wondering how it was worked out. Pro-Rata obviously and this year I'll be off 11 months so hoping to get a few more days back this time.

I too am in Scotland. I believe it's different elsewhere.

Are you in the EIS? Phone Edinburgh on Monday.

http://www.eis.org.uk/Contacts/who.htm

I am in the EIS, thanks for the advice. Finally put my £12 a month to some use!