Carrying over maternity holiday

[MrsTeddy]

1st time poster, sorry if this has been covered before but couldn't find it anywhere when I did a search.

I went on mat leave in February this year and am returning to work in November. Our holiday year runs from January to December and I have over 20 days of accrued leave to use. I'm returning to work "early" (my baby will only be 9 months old and I could have stayed off until March next year if I took my full mat leave entitlement + accrued holiday). As I'm going back "early" I was planning to use my accrued holiday to take a day off each week until the New Year and to take some extra leave over Christmas so I have time to visit family etc. I have more than enough accrued leave to do this.

However, HR have told me that I can't do this as I'm only allowed to "carry over" 5 days of the holiday I've accrued whilst on mat leave. It does say this in our maternity policy, but it's not clear whether this still applies if your maternity leave doesn't cross into a new holiday year and I'd assumed it only applied to carrying over from one holiday year into the next: it says you can take leave at the start or end of your mat leave or "carry over" a maximum of 3 or 5 days "depending on your contract" and be paid in lieu for the rest. Now my contract only refers to carrying over holiday (max 5 days) into a new holiday year: I'm not doing that as I'm returning in the same holiday year.

My question is, can they prevent me from carrying over holiday like this when I'm returning to work in the same holiday year as my mat leave started? They are of course offering to pay me for the accrued leave but I wanted to use it to work a shorter week so I'd rather just take it. In a way I can't see how they can do this because had I not been on maternity leave they wouldn't be able to prevent me from taking all my leave at the end of the year, so why can they do so just because I've taken mat leave? On the other hand they are offering to pay me for it so I guess technically I'm not being deprived of a benefit....

Any help gratefully received, I have a meeting with HR tomorrow.

Sorry I should add that I've discussed my plans with my line manager in terms of disruption to business etc. and he's totally happy for me to take a day off per week and have a long Xmas break, he's just happy I'm going back before March! It's only HR who are saying no....

No, that's not right. They cannot stop you from using holiday that was accrued during the same holiday year. You are not carrying it over, this would only apply if your maternity leave straddled holiday years. The only proviso to this is any usual contractual terms relating to when you can take holiday, eg not taking holiday over xmas etc.

I would get your line manager to talk to HR? SOunds like they're being inflexible - typical of HR. I'm having probs getting my leave paid out.

Doesn't sound right to me. Carrying over is going from one holiday year to another. It's not 'carrying over' holiday to not just use it all up at the end of your maternity leave.

I would normally say, however, that few workforces will approve a day of holiday a week or whatever as the disruption is much greater than using holiday in blocks (which, of course, is the way most people use most of their holiday normally). However, if your manager is fine with it then that shouldn't be an issue.

Thanks very much, I'll discuss with HR tomorrow. I thought it seemed unfair that they could restrict me like this just because I've been on mat leave.

I agree re: the one day a week holiday which is why I checked with my line manager - although there is another person in my dept who has returned from mat leave and is doing the same thing so it would have been hard for them to say no to me.

In case anyone is interested in future, I got legal advice on this and my HR dept were wrong, as I went on mat leave and returned in the same year I'm entitled to retain my full holiday entitlement for the year and take it as I choose (subject to the usual approvals which apply to all holiday request). My HR people have accepted that they made a mistake and apologised. Thanks everyone for your help!

Good for you!