Can I take Bank Holidays as well as Annual Leave before Maternity leave?

[Stacestoke]

Hi everyone, I am due to have a baby at the start of March next year and will be taking my years annual leave in a block before I go. What I'm not sure of is, am I allowed to take the days I would receive as Bank Holidays through the year as well? I am intending to take a year off and so would in theory gain another 7 days.

I'm planning on telling my work this week and would like to inform them of my holiday intentions. I am the first woman to ever take maternity leave in my company so I would like to be able to tell them accurately. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks,

You continue to accrue all paid holiday throughout maternity leave just as you would if you were at work. The only difference between annual leave and bank holidays is that you normally have to take bank holidays on set days. Obviously you can't do this if you are on maternity leave so you accrue them to take at another time.

Whether your employer will let you take them before your maternity leave is entirely up to them. As you say they've already agreed to you taking all the rest of your holiday in one block before you go, it seems likely they will be fine with that incorporating your bank holiday entitlement, but all you can do is ask them.

Do they know you are planning on taking all of the leave up front? They might not approve this, as holiday is accrued throughout the year. They may insist you take it at the end

flowery - thank you that all makes sense and is helpful

IceMaiden73 - I haven't informed them of my pregnancy yet and was planning on doing that and telling them about the holiday at the same time so there are no surprises for them. The only problem with taking the holiday at the end is that it will be a new holiday year and we can't carry holiday over so I will have lost a whole year's holiday if I do that.

so... if you are on mat leave over say Christmas new year, you should get an extra 3 days holiday as well? or if you're off year, you get your 20 (or whatever) days annual leave PLUS the 8 bank holidays?

it's been a while since I was off with ml, but it didnt work that way

If you are planning on starting your holiday leave and then making mat leave straight after you might be better off taking the 12 months mat leave first but getting them to agree to have your holiday leave (including bank holidays) tacked onto the end. You don't lose it, even if it goes beyond your company's leave calendar year because that's part of the maternity leave rules.

You don't lose holiday while on Mat Leave so you could in theory take your 39 weeks mat leave till December time and then have all your annual leave and bank holidays in the new year and then go back in March with a full annual leave entitlement for that year. It's a way of doing it wil very little unpaid time off.

BH are accrued. My work send me an email to I need to take all my leave before going off. As our leave year starts in April, I booked it all when I came off in May. The wee one was early, and as my maternity was only due to start on his due date, I got 11 days leave back and it's going to carry over for when I go back and my BHs.

thats awesome that you get your bank hols!