Maternity leave question

[moomoose]

I'm only entitled to stat maternity leave. I've got 2 weeks of holiday left. My (first) baby is due on 23 December. This year, my office closes after work on 23 Dec and stays shut through the Christmas break. Everyone is paid for the 26, 29, 30, 31 December even though none of us work. It's a great perk. My plan is to take 2 weeks of holiday from 12 December, and then start my maternity leave on 2 Jan.

But, apparently I have to start my maternity leave the day the baby is born, even if it's a bank holiday. Is that right? So everyone else in my organisation will be off on full pay over the Christmas break due to a mix of office closure and bank holidays, and I'll only be earning 90%, just because I've had a baby? That doesn't sit well with me, but if it's the law I guess there's not much I can do about it?

It's right.
If your baby came early say 1st Dec your mat pay would kick in then

Yes
so if you take holiday and baby doesn’t come you will be on holiday but the day after baby is born mat leave starts

thats right but you accrue your holidays so you would just bank those days? Or are they not annual leave? If it’s a perk of the job I don’t suppose you have much wiggle room I’m afraid.
try “pregnant then screwed” website and see if they can help advise.
but yeah you have to start you mat leave on your due date or before, even if you go 2 weeks overdue or have annual leave booked etc

That is correct. although you will be entitled to the bank holidays as holiday or pay at the end of your Mat Leave. For the other closure days, that probably depends on whether its in your contract or just an 'unwritten perk'.

Yes that's right. Working out maternity leave dates is a bit of a gamble - you either take your holidays early and therefore start your mat leave early even if baby isn't here (and miss out on the bank hols) or you plan to take it later and risk losing some holiday days (and miss out on the bank hols). I'd do as you planned! My first was 10 days late. Good luck xxx

(i've said the bank hols will be lost, that's just what my works policy is i think so you could check that)

I had this. My work added the 3 days between Christmas and New Year as banked annual leave days which I'm taking at the end of my maternity leave instead.

Baby was born 13 December

So you want to start mat leave after the due date? 2 weeks after?

You are entitled to take your bank holidays on return to employment, well my employer is like this have you checked.

Thanks everyone. The Christmas closure isn't contractual, but hopefully they'll add it on to the bank holiday leave. I doubt they will, but you never know! I assume I'll lose at least 1 week of annual leave if the baby is born early. We can carry over 5 days, which means I'm 'just' gambling 1 week of leave if I stick to my current plan. No reason to think the baby will be early, but now I've specifically made plans hoping it's late, we all know what will happen... 😁

This is the law (you accrue holiday, including bank holidays if they are part of your entitlement, while you are on ML).
Your baby probably won't come on the 23rd, there's a good chance it will be later so you'll have the extra few days pay before you have to go onto SMP. Fingers crossed! though you might wish the baby would just come out by then...

Sorry for double post, but I don't understand what you mean. From the day you start ML, you keep all your annual leave that you earn up until the day you finish ML. You can't lose any, even if that means carrying over a full year's entitlement. When you finish ML, you can discuss with your employer how you want to use it. Some people take an extra month after their ML. I am using mine to work part time for a number of weeks, so that my baby doesn't go full time at nursery until they are 1.

@WowStarsWow so if I've got the last 2 weeks of the year booked off, but then the baby is early so I have to start maternity leave, I just carry that leave over? I don't lose it? My plan is as follows:

Take remaining annual leave: 12 December - 23 December (due date)
Mix of weekends, bank holidays and office closure days: 24 December - 2 January
Start maternity leave: 3 January (if the baby hasn't arrived by then already)

Its the law, so they have to

I'd put the start of mat leave as 3 Jan, as then when the baby arrives it will pull it forward.

I thought they only had to let me carry it over if I hadn't had the chance to use it all? They could (reasonably, I think) argue I had all year to use it.

I've emailed HR to ask to speak to someone about it. We shall see! Hopefully they won't kick up a fuss about carrying it over if I do have the baby early, but I've just got a feeling it won't be that easy!

You can't lose any bank holidays or annual leave by being on mat leave - by law they are required to carry them over (even if the usual rule is that you can only roll over 5 days or whatever). They are allowed to be strict about when you take it - e.g. you must take it directly after may leave ends and can't roll it over further, for example.

You also can't lose any job perks except pay, or they risk being sued for discrimination. So even unwritten perks like closure days should be carried over. (My work also has closure days and they just add it to the carried over annual leave.)

Best way is probably just to tell them all this breezily rather than asking!

"I will start mat leave on day X, and then of course I'll roll over X annual leave, X bank holidays and X closure days."

You shouldn't be at a detriment because you are on maternity leave, so they absolutely should give you those days on your holiday entitlement

Yes, as long as your baby doesn't arrive before 3rd January, your plan is the best one. If baby does arrive, you will retain any unused annual leave days (plus bank holidays if they are part of your annual leave entitlement) but not the non-contractual Christmas days. When your annual leave period ends (eg in December or March) you will carry over those days and add them onto the next year's entitlement.
FWIW, my baby was due on 25th December, and I had him on 7th January. I chose to start my leave on the due date, so I got the 3 bank holidays "back" on top of my AL entitlement.

Just seen @CastleTower post - ignore what I said about the non-contractual days - they are of course right!

You cannot be treated unfavourably due to being off on maternity leave. If everyone gets those days off paid, but you aren't allowed to carry those hours over, you are being discriminated against so make sure you tell them that!

Ignore everyone who says about if they're an "unofficial perk". That doesn't matter. You can't be treated less favourably, by law.

I don't think you can start maternity leave after the due date? I'm sure for SMP it has to start on or before the due date. It's the due date that's used to calculate everything from your matb1 certificate.
So you can't take two weeks holiday while you're technically on maternity leave from 23rd December.

Definitely ask HR @moomoose. People are saying your maternity leave can't have a detrimental effect on your annual leave which is correct. But they can ask you to take any accrued AL before you go off on mat leave. For example, my HR department says i will have accrued 13.5 days before i go on Mat leave in Feb. I have to take those 13.5 days before i go. I'll then accrue the rest of my annual leave for the year whilst on mat leave (our holiday year runs august to end of july) so i will have around another 14 days to use when i come back that gets carried over.

Technically yes however in both of my pregnancies my babies have arrived whilst I was on AL before my ML started and my employer never changed my ML start date.
Do you have to tell your employer when baby arrives?