Annual leave 9 weeks before due date

[Honeycomb245]

Seeking opinions/ experience....my leave year runs April-April (gov job) and baby is due at the end of May. My boss has asked that I take all my 2024 annual leave/BH allowance before maternity leave starts, leaving me at home doing nothing for 9ish weeks before baby arrives (assuming they're on due date!).

Is it unreasonable to want to carry 50% leave to use after maternity leave ends? It seems a waste of time being home alone all those weeks before, when the time could be spent with my baby after. Thanks for any opinions/ advice.

I think it’s a waste and wouldn’t have wanted to that either. A couple of weeks was nice but that was enough.

Completely unreasonable. I'd say a month max before the due date - which could either be annual leave, or you could just start your maternity leave early. I wouldn't want 9 weeks! Save it for later to extend your maternity leave at the end.

It’s an unreasonable request on their part IMO. Does your work have a maternity policy you can view?

Yes, it says carry over of leave (from one leave year to another) is generally not permitted, unless for example you are on sick leave/ maternity leave. So say I was due late March there would be no issue carrying over my full allowance iyswim 🙄 helpful!

So you won't return until after April 25? My work place policy is that you can not carry more than a week over into a new year.

I took my annual leave gradually I did three days a week for a few weeks then cut down to two days per week. I also had 2 full weeks at the end . Mat leave started on my due date and he was born 3 days later.

What does your workplace policy say? I'm pretty sure at my work they like you to have taken proportionately the amount for the point in the year you go off (so, if you're starting mat leave 2 months into the leave year, to have taken at least 1/6 of your total entitlement by that point, and the rest at the end of your mat leave) but not the whole lot, that would be daft. I found it really helpful in essentially extending my mat leave to have it at the end, so I was still off but being paid again. It meant I could minimise the amount of unpaid leave I took while still being off for just over a year.

Also, what would your boss be proposing if you happened to have the baby earlier than expected? You'd have to be on mat leave from that point, cancelling out the annual leave.

Total bullshit
9 weeks is crazy.

I had my first baby around this time and took it ALL on the back and went back when DD was 13m. I didn't take 1 day of annual leave before MY chosen mat leave start date.

What a fucker.
Tell him no, find out the company policy and get HR involved of you need to.

Yes I plan to take the full 52 weeks maternity, so wouldn't be back until May 2025. Would like to use the annual leave on the other side of that to either have full pay for May 2025 or take June off as paid holidays and return July 2025. But it seems that won't be an option! @Persipan your work policy seems much more reasonable!

@GreatGateauxsby that would be ideal!

@persipan in that situation (early arrival) I could carry the annual leave over as my maternity leave would automatically start on baby's arrival.

An employer can force you to take your annual leave at a specific time, provided they give you at least double the notice of the period of annual leave. So if they are asking you to take 9 weeks leave (I'm clearly in the wrong job - I didn't think anyone got 9 weeks leave!) then they have to give you 18 weeks notice. So if they are asking you now to do that then they can't, as start of April is only about 9 weeks away. If say your baby is due on 27 May, then they could make you take about 5.5 weeks of annual leave, as 27 May is about 16.5 weeks away (so 5.5 weeks + 11 weeks notice). They would then have to allow you to carry over to next holiday year, as they have to if you aren't able to take due to maternity leave.

You get 9 weeks annual leave? If it’s their policy then they can ask you to do this. You could try and negotiate carrying over a couple of weeks.

It isn't all annual leave... It's annual leave plus Bank Holidays for 2024-2025 (don't know if they're treated differently in this situation, but I added them to the total as they will be accrued).

I thought the "double notice" rule was when an employer was cancelling annual leave they'd previously agreed, not telling them when to take it initially.

On a separate note (to OP), I can understand the employer wanting all 2024 leave taken in the current year, you're not back until a month into the next holiday year, whereby I assume you'll have another 9 weeks to take within those 11 months. For ease of covering your work they're probably trying to limit so much leaving being taken in the 2025/26 holiday year.

As @AliMonkey says, they should haven given you notice much sooner if they wanted you to do this so check your contract and point this out to them so that you can come to a suitable agreement.

I’m due around the same time as you and I’m taking half of my leave before I go off and almost the other half when I return. I’ve agreed with my boss that I’ll do a gradual return by taking holidays for my handover/catch up for a few weeks too before going back for the full 4 days.

That’s still a huge amount of annual leave for the year taking away the bank holidays. I should move to the public sector!

@FriendlyNeighbourhoodAccountant totally get that. Just (selfishly 😅) doesn't help me.

@SarahB88 I'd be happy with that! Using it all seems a bit much. Half would be reasonable.

I understand! Worth checking your contract / policy book and seeing what the deal is, in case their policy contradicts what's happening.

That's an unusual amount of leave for the public sector.i thought the maximum leave from the standard 20 was up to 30 with very long service, plus bank holidays.

@AliMonkey is correct.

Surely this counts as treating you differently than non-pregnant employees, unless they also make a habit of telling them when to take their annual leave?

Ah I stand corrected! I've never seen an employer need to dictate 9 weeks worth of leave before 😂

Although it does also say that employers can have different rules for additional leave above statutory. So I guess they could give 56 days' notice for the 28 days statutory, and expect OP to take the rest of the leave before Mat leave regardless of the notice. I think it's definitely one to check with HR for the policy.

It's 8.6 weeks to be exact...more realistic? 😂

@Honeycomb245 definitely don't go on the word of your manager. My manager tried to tell me I'd lost 3 weeks leave because I was signed off. I said that I wasn't up for that, so I'd contact HR. She then said she'd contact HR, who said 'Of course she hasn't lost it!'.