Annual leave pre maternity leave

[ammature]

Does any one know about how it works when you have annual leave to take before maternity? My leave runs May to May and my baby is due in Feb. im so unhappy with work I would love to take all my leave before I finish on maternity and assume I should be using it all up? I have quite a bit to take as I'm an academic I get good time off and have only taken a little so far. If I was to take All my leave it would be over a month off before taking maternity. Can anyone advise if I can do this or is this something I have to negociate? And if they won't let me take it what happens to my leave entitlement? Thanks ladies

You will have to negotiate as to when you take it but yes you are entitled to take it all. Im taking 3 weeks leave before starting mat leave.

Will you be able to make it through to xmas with no leave though??

I think they can refuse but then they would just have to pay you for any leave still owing. So you could just start maternity leave earlier and it would balance out iyswim?

You should be able to take your leave tagged into mat leave. I'm also due in Feb, my leave year is april-march. I'm planning on taking my remaining annual leave (about 4 weeks, also get a lot as NHS) then starting mat leave in Dec. My mat leave would then end Dec '16, but I will have the full years annual leave accrued so am planning on taking 6 weeks straight from mat leave and then taking a day a week for the next few weeks to ease myself back in. All perfectly allowed. You should just put your plans in writing to your line manager.

Be careful though, if you give birth during your annual leave then your maternity leave automatically starts and you lose the remaining leave.

Better to take your annual leave in advance, finish it 3 weeks before your due date, and start mat leave then

I'm due on 1st September which is a Tuesday so I have my ML starting the day before but then have the whole of August off as AL. Our AL dates are based on the calendar year and my contract says that I cannot transfer holidays to the next year unless they're taken in the first two weeks of January. My boss has agreed however that if baby arrives early, triggering ML, then they will tag it on to the end instead so that I still end up with the same amount of time off.
I think all companies say that dates for AL are by agreement, i.e. if you ask for time off when everyone else has already booked then they can say no but you would have to have a very unreasonable employer to stop you taking it at the end of your pregnancy.

Thanks everyone this is really helpful. I agree with Stubbed I will still start mat leave a good 3-4 weeks before due date I think. My line manager is really difficult so want to know what my rights are. I also have 2 separate academic jobs and would like to stay on longer in the new role I have, is it OK to take Maternity at 2 different points in 2 different roles? I won't get any maternity pay in the new role.