Accrual of bank holidays during maternity leave

[Jinsei]

I am a line manager, trying to calculate leave accrued by a member of my team who has returned from maternity leave. I may well be wrong, but I thought employees continued to accrue bank holidays while on maternity leave, in the same way that they accrue annual leave, but my HR department thinks they don't.

Could anyone clarify this for me please?

I don't think so...your HR dept has it correct. Just check whether the holiday element is over the statutory 25 days...if so you are fine.

I think you're right. When I came back from mat leave I had stacks of leave and questioned it because of something to do with bank hols. Was year of some extra ones too

sorry that sounds wrong - I questioned it and was told I had more leave because of the bank hols that I had accrued.

HR may have paid the bank holidays as they fell throughout the year. My company did, I received my pay/maternity pay, then an extra days pay for the bank as I wasn't able to be on holiday as I was on mat leave. You don't lose them, they need to be paid or given in lieu.

I think it depends on the company. The handbook for my public sector employer explicitly states that public hols are not accrued during mat leave. Normal a/l is.

In the Nhs it is only annual leave that is accrued not public holidays.

Thanks all, maybe HR is right then. I stand corrected! :)

I am not an HR specialist, but I also work in the public sector, but not NHS. I have someone due back from Mat Leave mid April and HR have told me that she is entitled to all of her untaken Annual Leave from last year, plus Bank Holidays that she would have taken at full pay, which as she is coming back after Easter totals 5 days (Xmas Day, Boxing Day, NY Day and Easter Weekend).

I think it depends on your contract, if you get x days annual leave plus BH, you are not allowed to put the person coming back at a detriment, so if they had BH off at full pay before Mat Leave, they are entitled to the days back and not be in a worse position than if they hadn't been on Mat Leave.

It can vary between NHS trusts. I got BHs at one trust but I don't at my current trust. Check your own maternity leave policy or get HR to send you the relevant bit. My current trust's policy specifically says you don't accrue BHs on mat leave.