Can you carry over holiday on maternity leave?

[KellyJellyfish]

Bit of a weird one, my company runs our work year July-June, not January-December like most companies, so technically I’m halfway through the work year already.

I had a lot of holiday left (10 days), I was planning on taking a long break over Christmas, then taking the remaining 10 days before mat leave started in late January.

But babies never stick to the plan, long story short I’m 36+3 and have just been admitted to hospital with preeclampsia, and they want to do a c-section on Monday 8th Jan. I MIGHT be able to go home tomorrow, in which case I’ll work from home as planned for 3 days (my holiday was due to start on 8th, and mat leave on 20th) but they’ve told me there’s a possibility I’ll have to stay in hospital now until my c-section on Monday.

Either way it means my mat leave start date is being brought forward to either this week, or Monday.

My question is can I carry over this holiday into next year? Initially I said I’d be off for 9 months, so returning late October. I really don’t want to lose this holiday as 10 paid days is a lot and we don’t have a very generous mat leave policy at work. For normal circumstances we can only carry over 5 days, IDK if maternity provides an exception, question for HR really.

Anyone have any experience with this? Thanks

Yes you should be able to carry it forward if giving birth had prevented you from taking your annual leave.

Yes . You may be required to take some of it at the end of your mat leave

If there is a policy for 5 days carry over then I suspect it will be your managers discretion to allow ten days given the circumstances.

I'm not sure if there is a specific legislation but in general a woman 'shouldn't loose out' on any benefits due to pregnancy and maternity leave so I suspect they would allow it.

You should message them and copy your HR rep for their guidance when you know the situation.

My work wouldn’t let me carry over holidays from the previous year to go off early (holidays are jan-dec and I am due Feb and had about 7 holidays that i took in December because they wouldn’t let me carry over), however in their contract it does state they can be carried over in exceptional circumstances (i thought pregnancy would come under that but apparently not 🥴) and I would say your circumstances definitely come under exceptional - it’s out of your control!

Yes you can, if holiday is unable to be taken due to birth

This might help with some of the information - think you are covered legally as you cannot take your holiday beforehand

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/work/maternity-and-parental-rights/check-your-maternity-and-parental-rights/rights-while-pregnant-or-on-maternity-leave/rights-while-youre-on-maternity-leave/

I was off April to April then used the full years holiday entitlement to the end of my maternity leave. I had the option to use it or be paid
It.

Exactly the same here. Our hol year runs from 1st April and as I went on maternity mid March planning to take a year off, I had a whole years allowance plus bank hols accrued.

It meant I got about 6 weeks extra added on the end which rolled into the next hol yr. So I didn't return until end of April and then had a full year allowance again.

From ACAS

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You still accrue (build up) your usual holiday entitlementt_ while you're on maternity leave. This includes bank holidays.

You cannot take holiday or get holiday pay while on maternity leave. But you can arrange with your employer for you to take it before or after maternity leave
You should talk with your employer as early as possible to agree how and when to take your holiday entitlement, including any you'll accrue while on maternity leave.

So yes you are entitled to your leave but you need to discuss with your employer how and when.

I think you'd need to find out from your employer how ir works. Same happened to me (although it was only 2 days leave I lost) and I was advised to take it unofficially for example I returned to work after mat leave on the 6th March on the system but didn't actually go in to work until 8th March

I spoke to acas very recently about annual leave. They advised that if you were unable to take your annual leave entitlement due to maternity leave or long term sock leave you are entitled to carry over any remaining balance of unused leave

If baby arrives, mat leave kicks in immediately. Your remaining unspent AL is still due to you. Whether your employer adds it onto the balance or pays you for it is likely up for discussion. But you legally cannot lose it.

Also, you are under no obligation to agree on a return date at this point - the employer should work on you taking the full 12m entitlement, and cannot ask you to tell them if you will be taking less. It is your right to take up to 12m. You then notify them 8 weeks before the date you want to return.

Also, remember, you get 10Kit days too, paid at normal rate to use within the 12m leave.