Maternity leave & holiday/BH & rates of pay & part-time vs full time-advice if poss pls

[pebPEB]

Hi, i'm new to this, sorry if its a bit of a garbled lengthy start to the thread!
I'm 25 weeks pregnant and in the process of working out what entitlements I have for annual leave & BH, when I can take them and then when I start maternity leave & SMP.
Firstly, i work 4 days a week(08:30-19:00) plus on-call once a week (overnight) and 1 weekend a month and 1 saturday morning in 10 (08:30-13:00). My contract states 4 weeks annual leave per year plus bank holidays. I never had a response from my boss last year as to whether 4 weeks was 16 days (my working week x 4) or 20 days (a normal working week)! To date it has been calculated as 16 days. I am referred to as 'part-time' by my boss however i don't know if the definition should strictly be based on hours worked or the fact that the majority of the other employess of the same description (vets) work a 5 day week but with days off etc allocated to them after working weekends etc rather than me forgoing that but getting the set 1 day off a week. As statuatory holiday is 28 days I may fall short but who is it up to, to define my entitlement?

Holiday year is Jan-Dec, none taken yet. I am likely to be on maternity leave March onwards for 12 months. Can I take this years '4 weeks' before i start ML or only the 1 week accrued?

Citizens advice suggested holiday is paid at a different rate to my salary, true or not? I understand not but am becoming increasingly confused the more i research.

I am anxious to get the facts right as my boss is a very difficult character and a bully but I need to sort out a rough idea of finish date with him now & he has made unprofessional comments to junior colleagues, assuming I'm not returning to work and refused to provide support when required (in the interestes of his clients). I am dreading the next few/couple of months of work as the nature of being a cow vet means there are lots of things to be so careful about & Ive been told pretty much my work will not change to make things safer so I am trying to control what I do as far as I can, without being a nuisance. It is causing increasing stress though and now I have a bump I feel quite vulnerable. To get a finish date agreed on terms that are right, will be a relief but im fairly sure he will try to manipulate to his advantage if possible, hence my fact seeking request. sorry such a lengthy post. No HR dept, no union. Just me working for a small private business with a boss who's head is buried in the sand.
Thank you in advance for your patience if you've got this far.

Peb I am also a vet and know that in the industry generally things are very shoddy for pregnant women, I wasn't treated very well now I am a boss it is very different in my practice.
Firstly have you had a risk assessment done? They need to look at physical risk - I was injured whilst pregnant because I couldn't move as fast fortunately only my hand got crushed, and also microbial risk so you shouldn't be doing lambing a or cleansings and if you have high risk farms with salmonella no calvings there either. Personally I would take a pregnant vet off TB testing as feel it is one of the high risk jobs in large animal practice.
Regarding holiday does your practice work bank holidays as normal days? As this will alter the way your holiday is worked out. Is your on - call proratated for you 4 day week or do you work a 'full-time' on call and a 4 day week?
Yes you can take your holiday before you go on maternity leave.
Even if you have no intention of taking the full years maternity leave give your boss the impression that is what you are going to do and you can write them 28 days before you come back if you are going to return earlier.
Are you a member of SPVS? They do provide support in this situation and really good advice - it could be a really well spent £150 they will have supported members in this situation before.

Thank you very much for reading my post! I completely agree that things are very difficult in the industry when pregnancy c

Sorry, pressed wrong button!
....When pregnancy comes into it. I have had no risk assessment and am completely tb testing with the odd call that I have to field accordingly if it's ok for me to do. Initially I was told I'd be 'confined to barracks' which I perhaps wrongly assumed to be doing small animal work but either I was wrong in my assumption or it's never happened. I'm booked up testing until mid feb currently (I've tested solidly for the last 9 months, it was never meant to be the significant part of my job..so much for career progression!)
I do full time on call. The bank holidays are either paid day day off or if worked a day off is given in lieu.
I haven't joined SPVS but it's a good idea, thank you.
Thank you for your reply, the work situation has been the hardest part of being pregnant & it seems such a shame. So avoidable even though it's got to be hard from an employers point of view I'm sure it could be managed well & I would presume your employees are far more loyal as a result.
My boss has by all accounts assumed I won't return (he has had several conversations with junior colleagues about me not coming back, using him for a job...) however I have every intention to at least have the option, but more importantly to want to go back. at the moment that's a hard thought to muster up!

Peb if you worked for me I would work out how many days per year a full time person would work so 5 days per week, plus Saturday half days, weekends etc all added together work out how many days per year you work ( count holiday as working days at this point) and then work out what percentage of full time you are.
I would then give you that percentage of 28 days for example if you worked 85% of full time I would give you 23.8 (actually I'd round it up to 24) days holiday. If you were off for a bank holiday and got paid for (so would have been one of your regular working days) that would count as 1 days holiday. So for example if you normally had Mondays off and worked Christmas Day and Boxing Day last year, you would have taken Good Friday and New Year's Day as holiday so you would have 22 days that were your holidays to choose.
I had assumed that you worked in a purely large animal practice, but as it is a mixed practice I would have moved you to purely small animal duties at 5 months pregnant. Remember not to be in the room for x-rays and when isoflurane is used, but the animal is not intubated. Check out maternity action for more advice. If you go to the RCVS website and type in pregnant there is a health and safety document for EMS that states that has a tiny bit of information for potential pregnant women.
I have my head in my hands shaking my head that there are still practices out there who are so stuck in the dark ages. I'm not perfect by try so hard to be fair and treat all my staff correctly. If I can be of any help please pm me.

I'm part time and work different hours on different days so my allowance is worked out in hours rather than days. How does that work for you?

You should be able to take all your holiday I.e 4 weeks not just the accrued bit before your mat leave. You will have to follow whatever normal approval processes are... Which can be a pain if your employer is not clued up! The other tricky bit is if baby comes early as you have to start your mat leave on birth & if you have no right to roll over your holidays you would lose it then. I think the way your holiday is currently worked out maybe illegal as you are entitled to min 5.6 weeks & depending what happens with bank hold not sure you are getting this. What lone at says would be normal approach IMO.

4 weeks hol is 16 days if you work 4 days a week.
Taking it to an extreme, if I worked one day a week, should I be entitled to 20 days hol?
Your slightly more than that tho, aren't you? An extra 2 days a month for the weekend, and one sat morning in 10, I'll ignore for the calcs, as its tiny. So actually you average 4.5 days per week?????
My hol gets paid at my hourly rate, which is used to auscultate my salary (on fixed hrs per week but hey!).

I was allowed to take hol not yet accrued, and also carry over to my return, even tho this isn't typically permitted.
On the accrued, would they let someone take a 3 week skiiing holiday in feb, on holiday which had not yet been accrued? if so, I don't see why you can't take some/all of your hol before mat leave.
Congrats on your pregnancy.

As far as calculations go, I do 86.5% of the work of a 5 day a week colleague. My holiday at 16 days is fine with the 8 added bank holidays (or day in lieu if worked) based on a 28 day entitlement for full time but if they get a base entitlement of 25 days plus 8 BH, should my calculation be based on 86.5% of 33 days seeing as he scaled my pay back according to the rate for similar experience/level vet 6yrs out?

Working out on an hourly rate I'm not sure would work, or at least my brain can't really make it work but it could be another way!

Yes, in the normal year holiday is allowed to be taken prior to it being accrued. I hadn't thought of that. I guess otherwise no-one could take leave in the first few months if every year which definitely isn't the case.

A concern is he'll refuse a 3or 4 wk block of holiday as it's our busy time with lambing/tb testing demands etc. I don't think he can refuse the carry over of holiday though into next year as by all accounts that's discrimination against the fact of being on maternity leave therefore not being able to take it...I think.

Does holiday get paid at the normal salaried rate whether taken before or after ML? CAB told me it's reduced but I didn't think that was right.

Thanks for your replies. Sorry to dwell on it, I wish it was clear cut for everyone no matter who your boss is!

YES! 86.5% of everyone elses hours = 86.5% of everyone elses holiday BUT if you work a longer day than everyone else (ie compressed hours) you need to be careful. I'm not sure, but it might be different.
Say, I work a 4 day, 40 hr week. My colleague works a 40 hr 5 day week, and both got 20 days hol a year, I'd get 5 weeks off, and colleague would get 4 weeks. Thats where the calculating in hours off is needed iyswim. Not sure how that works with your hours...

My holiday was paid at normal rate - ie just like I would get paid if I was on holiday. Not sure where CAB got that from, unless you don't get any e.g. weekend working uplifts, or call out pay and they were referring to that. So the holiday would get paid at flat rate, not what you might have earnt over a month with weekends and call outs etc.

Its one massive quagmire. If he's going to refuse holiday because its a busy time (and I can see this being allowed, otherwise next year, someone wants April off, "No", "But PEB did it last year" might come into play, however are you looking at a year off? You could bring ML forward to start early, but your still going to want that leave off on you return, and if you take 12 mths off, your going to want lambing time off again....

The more you write Peb the more I think you should join SPVS and get some advice from them they have HR professionals on board who are used to our industry which is unusual (both good and bad) in the way it works.
Please don't mend up like I did exhausted and injured struggling to maternity leave and then pressured back to work as it was the busy time and they had been able to find suitable maternity cover (they hadn't really tried).

I will join SPVS, have looked it up today & I'll get the form sent in tomorrow. I agree it could be a useful source of advice, possibly not only for now!
As for the rest of it I've a better idea now of how things should be. It'll quite possibly be raised this week in response to an email I've sent & MAT B1 form which he's now got on return from his ski holiday. Thank you for the thoughts & advice. I'm really grateful. Fingers crossed.