Maternity Leave and holidays entitlement

[fevdec]

Hi Ladies,

I wonder if anyone knows what happens to holiday entitlement in the following situation:

My due date is 30th October, my maternity leave starts on 20th October but I’m on holidays from 1st October till the start of maternity leave. But what happens to my holiday entitlement if, for example, I give birth on 10th October and my maternity leave automatically kicks in on 11th October. Does an employer have to pay me for the holidays I failed to take or carry them over to the next year? Is there a law which protects my holiday entitlement in the above described case?
The usual practice in my company is that you can carry up to 5 days of holiday over to the next year, you can try to negotiate carrying over more than that but it’s strictly at company’s discretion to allow you to do that. My manager encouraged me to take all my holidays for this year and carry nothing forward and it was absolutely fine by me but I started to think what if my baby comes much earlier and I really can’t afford to lose my holidays. I don’t mind getting paid for them or carrying them over, however I’m afraid that my employer can say as I started my maternity leave earlier than planned I lost my holidays

You are protected by the Equality Act as if you weren't pregnant you wouldn't be losing holiday.

If you are forced to start maternity leave if the baby arrives earlier, then you should be allowed to carry holiday over beyond the normal amount, or get cash for those days instead.

I wouldn't stress too much at this stage though, I was convinced I would go early and today's due date with zero hints that baby will arrive soon...

Eastwiththem, thank you for your reply. I hope you will have your baby very soon

I had a stockpile of AL to take before mat leave. I really wanted to just get paid and work a bit longer (pleased I haven't!) but that wasn't possible. I have been able to roll over 5 days at my manager's discretion for 2015/16 allocation.

Had the baby arrived whilst I was on leave, mat leave would have kicked in and I'd have lost out. And that's in a local authority, so fairly friendly.

PS eastwiththem, in exactly the same waiting boat!

When I had DD I still had 15 days AL left and because I wasnt due back till after the start of the next holiday year, I was paid for them but not until the start of the next year. I went on ml in September and got paid the 15 days in the april