accrued holiday entitlement

[Firstbab]

Hi,

My maternity leave is due to start on 01/07/19 this year. I've read that even whilst im on my maternity leave, I will still accrue holiday throughout that period.
Our holiday year runs from January to December, contracts state that we are not allowed to carry holiday over into the following year.
Does this mean that by law I am entitled to use up that holiday that I will eventually accrue before I go on Maternity leave? Even If I haven't technically accrued it??
I was hoping to block it on to my maternity leave and leave at the beginning of June if this is the case...

Can anyone help??

X

In the nhs mat leave is the exception for carrying over leave. I carried 8 weeks across and tagged it in the end of my mat leave l, so full pay for those two months.

We have to use all our accrued leave in a block before returning though. So you couldn't take a day off each week for 6 months for example but might be different elsewhere.

Most employers allow you to take leave before you have technically accrued it - otherwise you would always have to have the last days of your leave year off in order to use all your leave!

It's exactly the same as not being on mat leave, and deciding to take all your holiday in the first 6 months of the year. That's your choice to do so if you want. So, I would use all your holiday entitlement before you go an maternity leave.

Most people use some of their annual leave before they have accrued it. The fact that you will be accruing it while not working (at your job) is what makes this seem weird.

You basically sacrifice your pay but not your benefits so you can take your full year’s holiday allowance in advance. You’ll also be entitled to take any bank holidays that occur while you’re on mat leave either in advance or tag them into the end of your mat leave.

Totally depends on your employer. The Working Time Regulations say allowing you to take more holiday than you have accrued at the point you take the holiday is wholly at the discretion of the employer, it's not a statutory right.

However they also allow you to carry unused holidays over even if your contract doesn't normally allow this, providing you haven't been able to take those holidays due to absence.

So essentially, ask your employer. If they refuse to let you take the leave upfront they have to carry it over and make it available to you when you come back.

Public sector I have carried more than the 5 days we are allowed to over. Most policies will say except in special circumstances which maternity leave will be.
You can always take any outstanding from this year before your official maternity leave starts and then some at the end to have longer off but get paid for it

HR Bod here... if they refuse to let you take the leave upfront, or force you to take all your leave upfront, when they'd let a non pregnant colleague do that, it's discriminatory.

So they need to have a reason unrelated to the fact that you're pregnant, such as business need, to refuse/force you to take annual leave before your mat leave.

And you would be able to carry it over into the next year if you don't take it all in your current annual leave year (ie before mat leave)

Also this should include bank holidays.. ie you can add the bank holidays to your annual leave if you are on mat leave when the bh falls .

Russell the reason might just be that they have contractual terms not allowing anyone to take leave before it's accrued. WTR allows that.

Bank hols are also contractual and at the discretion of the employer. They can be added to the 28-day statutory minimum or included in it. Employer's choice - as long as he doesn't pay less than the statutory minimum it's covered.

Yes but if say there's 25 days leave, 3 bh days can be added to that to meet the statutory minimum. It's a grey area... well it was when I looked into it when I was pg some years ago