Bank holidays during Additional Maternity leave & carrying leave over

[Leah4]

Hi, I wonder if anyone can provide some information about this. I have been advised by my manager that I would not accrue any of the bank holidays (a total of three), during my additional maternity leave. My ordinary maternity leave would end in middle of July 2007. There is nothing in my staff handbook about this, and she has said this is the statutory minimum. I don't have a HR department so would like to know before I respond to her e-mail.
She has also advised that I would not be able to carry over any of my holiday accrued for 2007. I would be due to return after a year, on 15 Jan 2008. She has advised that I would have to return in December, but technically be on holiday in order to use my leave accumulated. Is this right? She allowed other staff to carry over a few days last year.
If anyone has any links to good websites, which I could show her, it would be much appreciated.

Thanks

As far as I know she is right about the bank holidays. As far as I am aware you can only accrue annual leave whilst on paid MAT leave and would therefore only accrue leave for 6 months whilst you were off work. I have been told that I can't use any of next years annual leave at the end of my MAT leave I have to go back to work first but I'm not sure that they can actually tell you that you can't carry the leave over. I suppose it depends on what their maximum carry over allowance is and whether you would exceed this. Try the DWP website they should have info on what you are legally entitled to.

She is right, it hinges on working time dirrective. The DTI do an excellent downloadable booklet, one for employee and one for staff. If company policy is that you cannot carry over leave then this will also apply to mat leave people. Mad I know, how can you use up annual leave if you are already on mat leave!

"how can you use up annual leave if you are already on mat leave" - if you are on unpaid ML then you use it up by getting paid iyswim

Thanks for all the very quick replies.

I have taken a look at the DWP and DTI websites. the DTI website does advise that "an employeee will only be entitled to accrue any contractual leave she is normally entitled to if she agrees this with her employer".

There is nothing on the websites about carrying over unused holidays. My contract does state I am not allowed to do this but I have along with other staff members and my manager, carried over a number of days in previous years. Some people have carried over 3, 5 or 6 days. Feels like she is just making it all difficult, so I am less inclined to return.

I also agree that it is mad that you have to use up annual leave if already on maternity leave, and technically going back earlier and being on holiday so that it does not get carried over.

This is from direct.gov about carrying over holiday

What happens to your holiday entitlement when you?re on maternity leave?

You?ll still build up all your entitlements to paid holiday during ordinary maternity leave. However, unless your contract says differently, you?ll accrue only the statutory minimum (four weeks) holiday entitlement during additional maternity leave.

You can add holiday to the beginning or end of your leave. You may not be able to carry over untaken holiday entitlement if your maternity leave goes over two holiday years, so it?s often best to take this at the beginning of your leave.

link

Unfortunately I think your employer is within their rights to have you return after just 12 mths leave provided they pay you the holiday you are owed

I would avoid agreeing to go back earlier and then take holiday as it would reduce the amount of holiday you get (you need to be on ML the full 12mths to accrue the full holiday)

You could agree to return after 12 mths but get paid the full year's worth of holiday

hi

this is an interesting topic which i am trying to find out more about.

i began mat leave october 2005 and was paid out for my accrued holidays to end of the year.

my holiday year began jan 06 and my ordinary mat leave ended april 06. i then took additional mat leave to sept 06.

my boss has told me i have only accrued 8 days A/L this year.

this just doesn't seem right.

any advice would be appreciated.

Fizi - did you work full time?

The legal minimum is four weeks a year; there is no statutory right to get bank holidays on top of this

What does your contract or maternity leave policy say?
You should your normal amount of holiday for the jan to apr period ie you accrue holiday at the same rate as if you worked those months
Then unless your contract gives you more - for your AML period you should get 2 weeks leave = 10 days if you work full time

Hope this makes sense

Hi TheBlonde

thanks for the info. yes I was full time before going on mat leave. i've returned on 4 days per week.

our HR dept is notoriously difficult to speak to. In fact they won't speak to me, only my line manager.

During my mat leave I was re-organised into a new reporting line to a person who's never managed before and is struggling to cope with the whole HR, pastoral care thing.

grrr

will be having proper look at gov website asap.

thanks again
Whizi

Hi,

Just thought I would post on this message, as I work in HR (when not on maternity leave) and have answered these questions many times.

Accuring annual leave while on maternity leave: You should accrue annual leave as normal while on paid (ordinary) maternity leave (OML) - as you are unable to take it because you are on maternity leave, your employer should take any accrued but untaken annual leave to the end of your OML at the beginning of your maternity leave.
You will not accrue annual leave while on additional maternity leave (AML) - you are not paid while you are on AML, so you also don't receive other employment benefits, of which annual leave is one. This includes public holidays.

Carrying forward leave - you should be entitled to carry forward leave under the same policy as an employee who is not on maternity leave. Therefore, if your policy states that you may carry forward e.g. up to 5 days annual leave to the next leave year, you should be entitled to do so also. However, if you are off on maternity leave for a full year then you have to make sure you will be back within the annual leave year to have the opportunity to take the carried forward leave - post policies will state that you cannot carry it forward across more than one leave year.

E.g. your annual leave year runs 1 Jan to 31 Dec. You are on leave from 1 Nov 05 to 31 Oct 06 - you should be paid any outstanding leave for the 2005 annual leave year when you go on leave in November. If your policy allows it and you choose to do so, you could carry forward 5 days' annual leave into the 2006 leave year. This would then not be paid when you go on mat leave, as you have chosen to carry it forward. However, you would then have to use this between 1 Nov 06 and 31 Dec 06, or you would lose it, as you can't carry it into the subsequent 2007 leave year. It is also right that you have to return from maternity leave before you can take annual leave, as you cannot start receiving/using benefits again until you have resumed paid employment.

Bottom line is that you have to be treated same as any other employee who is not on maternity leave, so if your policy allows employees to carry forward leave from one year to next, all employees must be allowed to do so, regardless of whether on maternity leave or not. Similarly, the same restrictions as to how long you can carry leave forward for should apply to all employees.

Hope this is not too long-winded a response and is helpful!

Sorry Scaredy but I think this is wrong:

"You will not accrue annual leave while on additional maternity leave (AML) - you are not paid while you are on AML, so you also don't receive other employment benefits, of which annual leave is one. This includes public holidays"

Whilst on AML you are still entitled to the stat min holidays ie for 6 mths AML = 2 weeks leave

Also many people still receive other employment benefits whilst on AML - you are still employed

have a look at this
The PDF file entitled:
Babies due on or before 31 March 2007
Maternity rights: a guide for employers and employees - Babies due on or after 6 April 2003 application/pdf (286Kb)

The holiday thing is correct - whilst on AML you are not entitled to company holiday pay but statutory which in a lot of cases is very different. Pension payments are also suspended in this period of time and car allowance payments are suspended for that period. They should all be reinstated on your return though and subscription type benefits such as health care, gym club etc should remain.

thought statutory accrued, contractual-subject to debate? No?

And bank holidays not actually a right anyway-they can be counted toward your 4 week statutory.

could be bllx tho

ah though, unless your contract states you have a right to accrue holidays.

thought pension contributions had to be made up but again, could be bllx.

CountTo10 - Scaredy has stated you are not entitled to any holiday during AML. I agree that the person should get the stat min

You definately accrue holidays at the statutory minimum, whilst on AML (so if you take 6 months AML, you get 10 days extra hols, if you were full time.) This only changed last year, so a lot of employers are seemingly unaware. You don't get anything for bank hols, as I understand it. Check out the CIPD website as that is quite helpful, although as with a lot of employment law, it aint always written in terribly straightforward English!

thanks ladies.

going on this advice by my reckoning I accrued annual leave 1st Jan to 7th April 06 during OML.

I then had unpaid AMO till September thus accruing the statutory 10 days.

and I am now accruing A/L for the period Sept - Dec 06 in line with working a 4 day week.

All of this indicates that I will be entitled to a few more than the 8 days currently being offered!

You should ask them to explain how they have calculated the 8 days

oh apparently it's an online calculator that my new line manager completed whilst being talked thru it by someone from HR.

i'll have to take it up with them on Monday again.

it's ridiculous to have to spend so much time on this sort of thing. i should be re-aquanting myself with my job and getting back up to speed.

and believe me, i work for a large, well known organisation. one that actually won an award for it's investment in people and flexible work arrangements!!!!

Not sure whether this got cleared up. Just to be clear (and I'm pretty sure about this):

• statutory a/l accrues during both ordinary and maternity leave (it has nothing to do with whether mat leave is paid, incidentally) BUT

• you can't TAKE statutory annual leave during mat leave AND

• you can't carry statutory a/l from one leave year to the next, so you need to use it up either before you go off on mat leave or when you come back. This is only a problem is your maternity leave coincides exactly with your leave year.

• CONTRACTUAL annual leave is a different story: if you get it, it's only accrued during ORDINARY maternity leave (unless your contract says you get it duing AML too).

Oh and bank holidays, as others have pointed out, are not a statutory right so whether you get them or not depends on your contract.

Good luck!!