Mat leave / office shut downs / accuring hol pay

[gummybearwotsit]

Hi everyone,

Not sure if this is the right place for this - so apologies if not!

I work in a business that "shuts down" over the Xmas period and each year we need to save holiday days for that period and the Bank Holidays that surround Xmas. This year, I will be on mat leave.

Am I correct in thinking then, that those holidays will become "free" for me to use again (i.e. I can't start mat leave, then have 2 x bank holiday "holidays" and 3 shut down "holidays", then start mat leave pay again??)
I'm hoping to just tag the five days on as five days holiday at the start of mat leave (but it's going to go down like a lead balloon so was hoping someone could confirm whether I was thinking along the right lines.

Secondly, I'm unsure whether I will be returning to work at the end of mat leave, but I have read somewhere that you accrue holiday pay during mat leave. Is this the case? If so, if I didn't return to work, would I then get a full years holiday pay at the end of my notice period?

Any help / comments would be great!

Thank you :) :) :)

When does your holiday year run from/to? I would have thought Bank Holidays stay where they are so will be treated the same as any other BH throughout the year whilst you're on mat leave and it's just your 'shut down' holidays that will need to be taken beforehand.

Our holiday year runs from Jan-Dec and I'm planning on starting mat leave beginning of Jan so any holiday I have left over this year I have to take before I start my mat leave so I'll just take a few days off over Christmas. Other companies may be different but we can't carry over holiday from one year to the next when it comes to mat leave.

With regards to accruing holiday during mat leave, yes you do and all I can remember from our policy (can't download it at the moment) is that you have to take it before the end of the year but I've no idea how that affects your mat leave. All very confusing. And I've probably just made it even more so!

At my place (local council) you don't have to take the shutdown days out of your entitlement if you won't be there and any bank holidays get added on.

Maternity leave has to be uninterupted, except for mutually agreed KIT days. So they can't make you take annual leave during maternity leave, so it'll accrue for you to use later - most company's would ask you to use most of your accrued annual leave before you go back to work.

Bank holidays accrue in the same way, so effectively they get added to your annual leave balance. If you don't return to work all accrued holiday gets paid out in a final pay.

Thank you :)

Pretty much as I thought I think!!! :) :)

My work also give the option of taking a lump sum for any holidays that you won't take that year at the start of maternity leave. E.g. I'll start mat leave in Feb, so take money upfront for unused holiday from the feb-dec period.