Holiday accrual confusion

[Frankleberry]

Hi,

I am due to return to work from maternity leave on 30th October. I requested over 2 month so ago to add any accrued holiday to the end of my maternity leave to delay my return to work but am still yet to have confirmation I can do this.

A change in hours has been agreed and instead of 40 hours, on my return to work I will now be working 14 hours a week.

My employer has stated my hours change from 30th October, however, if I end up taking my annual leave surely I will end up losing out on further accrual. Surely my hours shouldn't change until I actually return (which would be 4th December) meaning I would accrue holiday through November at the 40 hour a week rate.

Have I got this completely wrong?

The employer is correct in that your change of hours start from 30/10.

You will accrue less but you will also need to use less, ie if you are doing 2 7 hour days you will only need to use 2 holidays a week rather than 5.

If you have 10 days accrued you can have 5 weeks rather than 2 (if they will allow you to take that many

It depends what was agreed. When you put in a flexible working request asking to reduce your hours, what effective date did you ask for it to start from?

Also, it depends how long you want to stay off, surely? If you've got 20 days holiday to use up, if you stay full time you can add on 4 weeks to your maternity leave, whereas if you reduce to 2 days a week from 30 October you can be off 10 weeks more.

Your maternity leave ends at the end of October. Did you ask for a start date for the new working pattern to commence?

Sorry meant to say it’s kind of swings and roundabouts isn’t it. If the new pattern starts in December, you’d need to use 40 hours a week to take your holidays in december. If the new pattern starts in November, you’ll be accruing at the 14 hours rate, but you’ll only need to use 14 hours holiday to have a week off.

Sorry meant November