Work holiday after maternity leave

[Elou1234]

Hi lovelies,
I potentially will be on maternity leave next year until 28th October 26. I should still have my full holiday entitlement for that year as long as I don’t take any in January 26. In this case could I return to work on 29th October until 27th November and then take my 25 days holiday from then until the new holiday year starts in January?

TIA x

In theory that would work but your employer will have to approve it inline with your standard holiday procedures.

many workplaces would struggle to give someone the whole of December off.

if this is your intention the earlier you mention it the better.

It's normal to tag holiday onto the end of mat leave - but why do you want to go back for 1 month before the holiday? That would be very strange. Once you're back normal holiday rules apply, and few people would be allowed to take 5 weeks in one go as you'd have no cover. Just tag your 5 weeks on and go back in December? This is much more workable as your maternity cover just stays on longer.

It's common to take holiday time right after mat leave finishes. Assuming you're wanting to do it this way to have all of Christmas off, you'll probably already know the answer.. as in does your employer allow you to take all of your annual leave in one go and have all of the Christmas period off usually? If yes, then you're good. If not, then no you'll be bound by the usual holiday rules of your employer.

Check with your employer about their rules. At my work place we ask employees to use some holiday before they go on mat leave (if they have a lot accrued ) and straight away (if they have akt accrued) when they come back so they don't have a huge amount of days to use through "normal" day to day use. The idea is it's less disruption to keep the mat leave cover in place for longer than have an employee come and go a lot.
Ours is a small business so this is normally achieved through a chat with the person to find the right balance.

I agree with pp that your employer might not like you to come back for a month and then go again for a month unless that is common for your workplace.

Thank you all for your input!
So the reason for all of December as my parents are looking to book a 2-3 week an abroad family holiday in the US to celebrate Christmas from around 7th December. Once dates are all definite I’ll speak with my employer and see if this is something they will do. I work for a fairly big company with a big team so all work would be covered anyway and only a few in the team have to work on the week of Christmas. I’m entitled to use my 25 holiday days anyway and they’ll be less likely to want me to take it through January before I’m due as that is a busy time for us.

If you’re still working in Jan 26 I assume you’re not taking your full 12 months mat leave entitlement? You could always extend you mat leave to 27th Nov then tag the holiday on the end, I would say an employer is more likely to approve that especially seeing as you’d still be within your 12 months entitlement they don’t have much to lose in terms of managing your absence then.

This is a good idea that I did consider, but my company only go by SMP so my last payment would be the end of October. By doing this I would go a month with no pay on top of Christmas which I would like to avoid doing.

You are entitled to your holiday entitlement that you have accrued through maternity leave, but your employer is allowed to have a say in when you take it. Basically, although it is accrued in maternity leave, it is normal holiday. So unlike maternity that they have to give you when you need it, if there are normal rules over holiday they can make you take your accrued holiday leave in line with that. For example: there is a particularly busy period in the year when no-one is allowed leave. If this period fall IN your mat leave, your employer can't make you come in for it. If it falls at the end of your mat leave, the employer could insist that you come in and work that period BEFORE taking your accrued leave.

I had a similar situation last year, where my paid / SMP mat leave was due to end around the end of Nov I think? And adding AL was going to mean I was due back at work on the 27th Dec. Absolutely no chance I was doing that! DH and I agreed in our case it was worth taking the month's unpaid leave and we put some savings aside that would come into our joint account as "my pay" for that month. Then I took the one month unpaid mat leave for Dec, had my AL run in Jan and went back to work in Feb. Was definitely the best way of doing things for us! Also worked best for work because as far as they were concerned, my return date just became the Feb date.

Thank you for your input! X
I will still have full holiday entitlement when I go on mat leave as I’m not planning on taking my full holiday in January (if all goes to plan) and this renews each January. So we could consider me taking 1 month unpaid leave at the end of my mat leave, taking me through November unpaid and then take my 25 days accured holiday through December and get paid before Christmas. Then start back to work in January. Someone on my team is currently having 3 weeks off as we speak so I don’t think taking a chunk of holiday at once will be an issue with my company.

@Elou1234 during the months unpaid SML you could do some KIT days to give you some income.

I would also suggest when you apply for mat leave that you set out your plans for annual leave as well.