Bank holidays accrual being treated differently from mat leave no1 to mat leave no2

[BHMatLeave]

Before I went on mat leave first time around, I queried the situation around bank holidays and was told that I would accrue my standard annual leave (27.5 days) plus the 8 bank holidays on top.

I'm due back to work after mat leave no.2 in a few weeks and will have a different boss, who is saying that they don't think I do get BHs on top.

There has been no policy changes or changes to my contract. Neither the annual leave or maternity leave policies mention this.

I have said that I would expect to have the same as last time as that was what was (verbally) discussed/confirmed to me by my old manager before starting this mat leave.

I suspect they will come back and say I was given the wrong info first time around and shouldn't have had the extra days first time around.

I'm trying to get a copy of my employment contract as googling is telling me that the entitlement depends on that.... But aside from that, can they "treat" me differently from one mat leave to another?

IIRC it depends when the BHs fall. If you have enhanced maternity pay and the BHs fall when you're receiving that, you don't get them back. If they fall when you're on SMP you do get them back. Happy to be corrected though:

But given I had it confirmed by email first time that I do accrue all BHs on top, can they now say that I don't for this time?

Enhanced pay or SMP has got nothing to do with holiday accrual.

You are entitled to accrue paid holiday throughout your maternity leave (paid and unpaid maternity leave equally). Bank holidays are not excepted from this rule.

You are entitled to all your contractual benefits.

You are entitled to be treated no less favourably than colleagues who are not on maternity leave.

Do you not have HR where you work OP?

Thanks flowery.

You wouldn't believe that I fall under the HR function in my role eh?? I work for a big bluechip with about 200 HR people in the UK alone yet no one seems to have the definitive answer.

It was my HRBP who confirmed this to me a couple of years back. She's now gone and my HRD is querying it, saying he's just "checking on the current policy". I've already shown him the original email whereby ice said "I don't think this is down to policy as such"......

I thought that you should get them but having just Googled I appear to be wrong.
I have certainly always had them added to my maternity leave.

It does depend on your contract in that if you are contractually entitled to paid time off on bank holidays, they accrue the same as other holiday - there is no difference.

I would expect in such a large organisation they have people going on maternity leave all the time and therefore have a standard approach to this?

There is rather lengthy guidance on the CIPD website under their bank holiday FAQs for those who have access.

Hi,

I am NHS and I believe they done the same lately. I accrued bank holidays but, since then, my colleagues haven't and they were told that the rules have changed.
I don't see how they can do it though as you shouldn't be treated less favourably then those not on maternity leave.
If the policy has not changed they can't enforce it.