Maternity Leave and Annual Leave for a HLTA

[Leodensian36]

I work as a HLTA in a school on a 'part time' basis (31.5 hours per week). I am not paid for the school holidays (salary is pro-rated down to reflect this) but still paid in 12 monthly amounts. I will be taking maternity leave next year so asked about stat leave and bank holiday accrual whilst I am on maternity leave. I was told that I am not entitled as I am not paid for school holidays. This being the case surely I am still paid for the statutory minimum of leave (28 days pro-rated) as part of my salary?

I think I am maybe entitled to at least accrue the statutory minimum of leave whilst on maternity.

Can anyone confirm if this is or isn't the case and what would be an appropriate response to put to the senior leadership team at the school?

Many thanks for any help.

I'm no lawyer but I'm pretty sure you would be entitled if you have worked there for a length of time. As far as I'm aware it makes no difference if you are not paid for the holidays. Hopefully someone can come along with more knowledge and help, I just didn't want to read and run.

Definitely seek employment advice about this!

I'm an HR Manager for a group of schools and had this query recently, which I checked with the legal advisers. Basically, it depends when you go off and how much leave you take and whether you will have had time to take your 'annual leave' entitlement before you go and when you come back. It's better explained with an example.

We had a teacher who went on maternity leave on 13th August. For the Academic year 2016-17 she had already had sufficient time to take her 'annual leave' in the holidays before she went off, (e.g. Easter hols, christmas hols) so that was fine. However, she is taking a year and so is returning on 14th August 2018, so she will not have time to take her 'annual leave' for 2017/18 before she comes back (as there will be only a couple of weeks of the Academic year left. So she is taking 2 weeks of her statutory annual leave entitlement from 13th August 2018 to 31st August 2018, and we then have to pay her 2 weeks that she will not be able to use.

I hope that makes sense!

I should add that if the lady above had decided to take 6 months, she would have come back in February and therefore there would be sufficient closure periods for her to take her periods before the end of the academic year x

take her leave not periods!!!

Hi,
Thanks for getting back to me. My baby is due 11th January so I will aim to finish at Christmas with my maternity leave starting in January when the kids go back. At the minute I am thinking of returning the following September but have been advised to re-start the last week of term in July so I get paid my full pro-rated wage over the summer holidays rather than maternity pay till September. This all makes sense but since my contract says 'term time only + 22 days' I wondered if I was entitled to holiday pay or extra days off after my maternity leave has finished.
Thanks for any advice you can offer me!

Yes if you are thinking of going back in September, I'd finish maternity leave on the last day of term so you'd get your full pay over the summer. If you stayed off until September, you'd have your mat pay over the summer. If you stayed on mat leave til September, you may be owed a week of holiday pay, as you'd only had the opportunity to take 3 weeks holiday (October half term and 2 weeks at Christmas) so you'd be owed a week. But financially, you'd probably be better off coming back on the last day of term.

Thanks so much for all your help! It's much appreciated. So it sounds like I wouldn't be able to gain extra leave so I point in me bringing it up with the leadership team again. I'll see how it all goes but definitely returning in July is my best bet!