What happens about my holiday entitlement if I am going on maternity leave?

[Enid]

I am going on maternity leave in April - I have searched for what I do about my holiday and how much of my holiday entitlement I can take on the internet and can't find anything.

Does anyone know? Can I add it to my maternity leave? Am I entitled to the full annual amount? Does my employer have to pay me for it if I don't take it?

Thanks.

you get all of it .. you can do what you want to with it .. if you add it to the end of your maternity leave though you won't get paid .. if you go back and then take it as holiday you will

Twiglett (can't be fannied with changing now)

can I get paid for it instead of adding it to end of maternity leave?

you can where I work, but not sure if it is statutory. They prefer you to take it rather than not take it and they pay, but it is the employee's choice.

so I can ask them? will ask. feel like I may not go back...but not sure.

i added mine to the end of maternity leave and got it paid.

i'm not sure if you can get a lump sum payment instead of taking it as paid leave, iyswim. but twiglett is right, holidays accrue as normal during maternity leave.

I finished work in the July (m/w signed me off early due to elephantitis of the arse) and most of July was taken as holiday. Then my maternity leave of 6 months was taken from the start of August (I also had some unpaid extra off).

OR I could have been paid for the holiday time but had less time off iyswim.

You can take you full amount, you still accrue holidays whilst on maternity leave.

x

in case this helps. what i did was work out the amount of maternity leave i wanted to take then added x weeks holiday to the end of that. that gave me a particular date to be back in the office, but my mat leave officially ended x weeks before that date, and i started getting paid again x weeks before returning to the office. you could do what i did and resign on your return to the office.

i mean you can resign, i didn't resign!

You are also allowed to carry over up to 5 days in to the next working year, if you are NOT paid for it, and are unable to take it, due to your abscence.

Actually, if you know you're not going back you can reach a settlement, and done right that is tax free.

Keeping a job open is a pain for most employers, so the certainty has value to them, and if you're on good terms they be persuaded to make you redundant, paying off your rights.

In some respects, I feel the law is too protective of women here. What would suit both sides a lot is a way where both sides can agree such terms as a part of the process. Would need safeguards of course.