KIT days - disagreement

[CosyCheshiremumtobe]

I am expecting my first baby in January and I had a discussion with my manager whose quite strict thr other day about my desire to do KIT days during my maternity leave.

I initially suggested maybe 1 a month starting from May and he immediately put the days in for me!

One falls on a day I cant do due to a pre planned holiday. Hes really strict...but am I legally in my rights to say (before I head on mat leave at christmas) id like to change that day? He's done it as theres always an annual board meeting that day, but I never did 'agree' to it , it was just put in my calendar. I am expecting push back from him so just want to know my rights/what to say.

KIT days are optional for both the employee and the employer, you can refuse any day without any comeback but if you propose dates they're also under no obligation to say yes. So he should cancel the day but he doesn't have to give you an alternative date he can just cancel the day. Hope that helps!

KIT days must be agreed by both parties. They can't force you to do a KIT day at all or on a certain day. Similarly you can't force them to let you do one or on a certain day. You are within your rights to say you can't do a particular day and you are protected from being subject to a detriment because of this. Advise you to try and have a constructive conversation with them, perhaps saying you don't want to schedule them all at this stage.

I didn’t do any on my first maternity leave as I just didn’t want to, baby wouldn’t take milk from a bottle and I wasn’t keen on leaving baby for more than a couple of hours at the time. My employer was incredibly pushy and kept saying they were mandatory/essential but they aren’t. If you can’t do it, say no, or say what you can/are willing to do and it’s up to them to accept!

You aren't required to have any KiT days, they're entirely optional. Also, not sure how long you're planning to take for maternity leave, but if you have your KiT day when your statutory pay drops to zero, you will get paid for a full day. You've said he is strict, so it doesn't sound like he'd agree to this to help you out though. My (male) manager was the same, so I didn't have any KiT days at all.

You don't have to do any at all, so if he's going to be arbitrary and unhelpful on certain dates you can just say no. What a stupid way for him to act - is he usually so daft? Whenever I have line-managed staff with KIT days I have always gone by what works for them - it's common sense!

In fact one time my colleague was going to cancel as their car was out of action and she couldn't make it in... so we did the KIT at her house instead! (Obviously she was happy with this - I didn't just rock up!) It was quite nice to do it away from the office to be honest - lots of time and space to catch up and more relaxed than with phones ringing in the background.