Holidays and maternity leave. Help please.

[Flip]

Is it true that you don't acrue holidays when on extended maternity leave? I've just finished my six months paid and now I'm having six months unpaid. Will I not get holidays for the unpaid part?

I was hoping to go back in November and have all of my holiday entitlement to take before December.

Any advise?

AS far as I am aware you accrue leave for the full period that you are still on maternity leave. At least I hope so! I'm going back in July after full 52 weeks off and my leave year runs from april to april, so I hope to have accrued about 7 full days by the time I go back, which given that will be returning part time, equates to almost 4 weeks worth! Hurrah.

Yes you do accrue annual leave (except public holidays) while on unpaid mat leave

Pook

Are you sure they won't pro rata that ie 1.2 (ish) weeks' worth of your revised parttime allowance?

You definately do accrue annual leave during AML, but often only at the statutory rate of 20 days a year rather than at any higher rate your company may normally have.

A change of hours requires a change of contract and until that signed and dated then holidays shouldn't change for you pook.

Thanks for your reasurance about holidays. I was told by someone else on mat leave that you didn't get holidays. I'll have to inform her otherwise.

On a slightly different question - if I go on maternity leave in July and take a year off and then decide not to return, is my holiday entitlement calculated until the July leaving date or until the end of my paid maternity leave?

I think you need to find out when your annual leave accrues - i.e. is it April to March...because many employers don't let you carry large amounts of leave forward (and that includes everyone in the company). e.g. at my old company our leave year ran from Jan to Dec so if at the end of Dec you had more than 5 days accruing, you lost them.

In short though, your leave should be calculated up to the date you leave (i.e. resign, so therefore after mat leave) but just check when your leave year falls so you don't get caught out if that makes sense!!

Mog, I would definitely check your terms and conditions in your maternity leave contract they send you. I know some people who have had to work for for a certain number of weeks after mat leave otherwise the company recoups some of the mat pay.

and as Prufrock said, unless agreed with employer that it will be your normal leave entitlement, it is 4 weeks leave entitlement in AML and your normal leave for the paid bit.

Excuse the 3 posts, can't get all my thoughts out in one go with my little ones trying to type with me!!

Sorry Flip but my understanding is that holiday entitlement does not accrue whilst on the extended maternity leave ( during this period, all contractual terms and conditions are suspended apart from very basic things like the parties acting in good faith towards eachother- e.g. not slagging eachother off to a third party and employees not giving confidential info to a competitor etc..).

It isn't generally recommended that employers withold the holiday entitlemnt for the extended maternity leave because it is so petty and often costs more to the employer in terms of explaining the rules to the handful of employees affected and calculating the part of the year that holiday entitlment does not accrue etc.

It would be great if the European Court of Justice got to decide on whether the UK legislation meets the requirements of the European legislation on rights of women during maternity leave and holiday entitlements.

sis, you are right about only the basic T&C applying during that period but 20days (4 weeks) leave is the statutory amount that applies during extended maternity leave if you have not negotiated your normal leave to accrue with your employer.

And here it is - from the dti guidance for ADDITIONAL maternity leave:

'Under the Working Time Regulations 1998, an
employee is entitled to four weeks? paid annual
leave. This applies during her additional maternity leave period. Guidance on calculating statutory
entitlement to annual leave can be found in Your
guide to the Working Time Regulations.
An employee will only be entitled to accrue any
contractual annual leave she is normally entitled to
if she agrees this with her employer.'

Hope that helps.

Foxinsoxs, I'm very happy to be proven wrong on this one !

Sorry again - I spelled your name wrong in the last post - of course it should be foxinsocks not foxinsox.

Hi there, I'm new to Mumsnet, and I just wanted to say thank you for this thread.

I wish I'd seen it a few weeks ago - I've just applied to take a career break of a few weeks after my additional maternity leave to bridge the gap until we can get ds into nursery - no mention was made of the alternatives (using annual leave, parental leave etc). I was even sent a letter when I went on maternity leave, saying that I couldn't accrue holidays at the moment! So I guess I've just signed away my right to return to a job at the same level. Great. And this is the treatment you get from a Government department - you would think they would know better!