Maternity Leave and Annual leave - can anyone enlighten me?????

[fannyannie]

OK I'm going on Maternity leave in a few months time (beginning of May - EDD beginning of June) - and having spoken to CAB and researched myself I know that I'm entitled to 6 weeks at full pay and 33 weeks at SMP. All fairly straightforward there.

At work our 'leave' year runs from Jan-Dec - and I'm entitled to 4 weeks (12 nights - as I'm part time).

Does me taking the full 39 weeks 'paid' maternity leave affect my annual leave entitlement???

No, you should still get your annual leave entitlement, because you're still an employee while you're on maternity leave. Check with your HR department, but in my company we have to use up all our annual leave before we go on maternity leave. You could either use it up between now and June or add it onto your maternity leave so you leave earlier, or a combination of the two. I'm going on ML after Easter and have 15 days AL to use up before then, sounds too good to be true but it isn't! Hope this helps!

You should accrue holiday all the time you are on mat leave, normal or additional. My hol year runs from April - Mar and my mat leave ended in Dec. I am due to be paid my holiday accrual between April and Dec nex month!

I am taking my 4 weeks annual leave before I start my maternity leave - I have put back mat leave to the last day possible (one day before EDD) so that I get more time off when the baby is born.
this may help

Also speak to your Human Resources dept to have your entitlement put into writing.

You also continue to accrue holidays and you are entitled to bank holidays on OML.