NHS - mat leave & bank holidays

[BionicEmu]

I'm sure this must have been asked before, but I can't find a definite answer for my case, so thought I would try posting here in the hope that somebody can give me some advice.

I am 23 weeks pregnant and trying to sort out my maternity leave. I work for the NHS. I work part-time, 3 full days a week. Usually I get a pro-rata amount of annual leave. If I worked full time I would get 29 days annual leave + bank holidays. As I'm PT I get 3/5 of this. Also as I am PT I get a pro-rata number of bank holidays. As I work Wed-Fri these are just added onto my annual leave total, with the proviso that I have to take any bank holidays on a Wed-Fri as annual leave.

When it comes to maternity leave, I am under the impression that I am entitled to the same terms and conditions when on maternity leave as I would be if I was working. As I normally get, in effect, extra holidays in lieu of bank holidays, I had assumed this would continue when on maternity leave.

However, I've just been looking through the mat leave paperwork . It states "You will accrue your normal annual leave entitlement throughout the paid and unpaid maternity leave period. However, this does not include bank holidays as you have no statutory entitlement to be paid for them."

To me, this seems in direct conflict with what I have understood from employment law.

So am I entitled to accrue bank holidays or not? I'm very confused, so please somebody help!

I'm a nurse and currently on ML. In April of this year our policy changed so that we can now accrue bank holidays whilst off. When was your policy last updated?

I think there was a legal challenge and bank holidays are added on as extra time off when you are either sick or on Mat Leave.

Wow, that was quick, thankyou!

Have just looked at the paperwork, and the policy was last updated in February 2012.

I have a friend who's a nurse in a different trust, and she accrues bank holidays too. (I'm not a nurse though, I'm a lab tech.).

So the policy was updated rather recently, but still says as stated above. Is there anything I can do?

And I do accrue bank holidays if I'm off sick too. My annual entitlement was calculated at start of leave year in April as 3/5 of 29+8 days. I was recently off sick with quite serious mental health issues for 3 months, and my leave has remained unchanged.

In our trust you don't accrue bank holidays on sick or maternity leave

Bionic it might be that the manager overlooked the bank hol (easy 'mistake' to make)

I thought the law changed in Oct 2008 so that everyone accrued BB on ML.

the law did change in 2008 and so Bank holidays were added to NHS leave entitlements. I remember questionning it as I had a prem baby in sept, due mid-october. As my matb1 stated an october 2008 delivery I got my bank holidays as well. The only stipulation was that I tried and used as much of the accrued leave before I returned to work. So I signed off mat leave at 52 weeks then took all outstanding annual leave inc bank hols before returning to work.

Thanks for the replies everyone.

I think I'm now more confused though! My Trust's policy seems very clear, but it does seem at odds with most other things I've heard/read. Including what other Trusts do.

Should I challenge the policy? And if so, then how?

In my maternity policy it says there is no entitlement to bank holidays during maternity leave, the policy is from feb 2012 so I am confused, sorry this doesn't help OP, can we be confused together!!

there's lots of similar nhs/bank holiday threads in the employment section - I've probably been on most of them! but I know that the law changes have been quoted and linked too..so maybe have a search and see if you can find them.

I've supported staff on maternity leave since my return and have always given them their BHs, not had any direction otherwise. But I'm going to go and check the words now...just in case I've been throwing money away.

well I've just checked my policy and it says "bank holidays are not accrued" - it was last reviewed in sept 2008 and not due for review till next march!

but if you google " bank holidays in mat leave in nhs" - the front page gives links to lots of different NHs sites all that contridict each other.

I think, once we find the correct legislation, is that in 2008, that the change related to that all on maternity leave were entitled to statutory annual leave which is 25/28days inclusive of bank holidays (?).

whereas if your NHS contract (as mine does) says 27 annual leave days (or whatever for service) plus 8 bank holidays, then this is an "in-service benefit" - to which you are entitled too whilst on leave. It's the same as if you hit the 5 or 10yr mark of service whilst on mat leave, then annual leave still goes up whether you've been at "work" or not.

I will be emailing my HR bod tomorrow though..just to check.

I work for the Civil Service but not the NHS. There was an issue with the union and my department has back dated bank holidays accrued during the first 6 months of maternity to 2003, I think, and the bank holidays for the next 3 months back dated to 2008.

If bank holidays are given as extra annual leave as part of your normal working conditions they must be accrued during maternity leave. Are you part of the union, they will be able to help you.

Thankyou!

I've had a look at other threads, but that's where I got confused. The general consensus seems to be that I should accrue bank holidays as they are a normal working benefit that I get, but my trust's mat leave policy clearly states that I don't accrue bank holidays when on mat leave, and it was updated in Feb of this year, so it's not just that it hasn't been updated since 2008.

didn't quite get to my HR dept today, but I've found an MN thread that has some links in it and comments from Flowerybeanbag too. It also has lots of positive stories where policies have changed to inc BH's if over stat minimum.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/employment_issues/747610-Treatment-of-Bank-Holidays-whilst-on-maternity-leave?pg=1