Maternity and annual leave

[tomatan1990]

I am 14 weeks today and notified my HR dept this week that I’m pregnant (early I know probably but my boss knows and they are useless so wanted to give them as much time as possible to get it sorted out!)

I’ve had a letter through with info about mat leave and pay etc. In the annual leave section it says they like to use your AL in the year you accrue it and there are various ways you can do this. My leave year starts in September as I work in education and there’s no way I can (or want to!) take all of it before Christmas. Has anyone had a similar situation? Surely they can’t force me to use it this year otherwise anyone who was pregnant would end up going off at 32 weeks or so. I had planned on saving it and taking it at the end of my Mat leave so I would be getting paid.

Personally I have whacked it on the beginning of my maternity leave so going off at 36 weeks on annual leave and maternity leave due to start 3 and a bit weeks later

I had this argument with my HR department as I'm due in November. Planning on starting my maternity leave on my due date but using my outstanding holiday and finishing two weeks sooner. However, when I asked them what happens if the baby is born early the originally said that I would lose it because I'd be going into a new holiday year. After many emails, they escalated it and said it can be carried over and added onto the end of my maternity leave. I think they were using company policy of not carrying over holiday but not considering the impact of maternity rights.

This link below is useful. They shouldn't be able to stop you carrying over holiday pay because of the fact that you're going on maternity leave.

www.citizensadvice.org.uk/work/rights-at-work/parental-rights/rights-while-youre-on-maternity-leave/

Oh that’s perfect thank you cake!

My company were the opposite and told me I could only use accrued leave due to me before my chosen mat leave start date and the rest of this years annual leave owed to me is carried forward and added to next years so i can use it before i come back to work.
They did say that in a situation where I was forced to start mat leave earlier than planned, or if I didnt return to work, they'd pay out on the holidays given its maternity, they wouldnt do that in any other circumstance.
Hope you get it sorted 🤞

If your year starts in September you'll only have accrued a quarter of your annual leave by December. For most people that would be 1 or maybe 1.5 weeks to add onto the beginning of ML. The rest of it will accrue whilst you are off so you would get the remaining 3 weeks plus the week from the next year added on at the end of ML. It would be unusual for them to insist on you taking AL before accruing it. I suppose they could pay you for it sooner e.g. next August, but just add the extra time off onto the end of ML, if that helps them balance their wage bill?

It varies by organisation OP, we (public sector) have to take all leave for that financial year prior to starting Mat leave, not just accrued leave, plus days in lieu of any Bank holidays that fall into Mat leave period for that year. I think that’s fairly common for public sector due to budget setting annually. So in short, yes, they can ‘force’ you to take all the leave if that is the policy and is applied consistently. What does your policy and contract say, you don’t mention in your post?

Thanks@NewMama2Be! And @Chocolatelover45 I didn’t think about the fact I wouldn’t have even accrued it by then. We’re unofficially not supposed to take leave during term time so it would be a bit backwards of them to make me.

That’s a bit mad @Tini17 that you have to take all of it. That would be 40 days for me including all bank holidays etc which would mean leaving about two months before baby is due! Just checked the policy and it says staff are encouraged to use it in the year it’s been accrued and if at all possible take some before ML starts. So sounds like they will be flexible. I will have a chat with HR after discussing with my line manager anyway. Thanks for your help everyone!