If I give my employer additional notice that I intend to resign at the end of my maternity leave can they make me leave earlier than planned?

[INeedNewShoes]

I took a full year's maternity leave, due to return to work in April.

My department is currently being restructured and because my job is due to change I have to go through a consultation process. I really can't be bothered to do this so I'm wondering about informing them now that I don't intend to return at the end of my leave in April.

My SMP finishes in January anyway but I took the full year's maternity leave in order to be able to accrue annual leave for as long as possible for which I'll be paid when my leave comes to an end.

Am I at risk of not getting my full year's annual leave paid if I tell them now that I don't intend to return?

Thanks for any advice!

And you can def accept redundancy during maternity leave. I did.

”in most circumstances yes the employer can say your early notice has started the notice period running and terminate your employment early.”

It would be very unusual for a contract to worded in such a way as to not permit employees to give more than the required notice and to be clear that giving notice with a later termination date triggers earlier termination than desired.

Having said that, I agree that for the “anything could happen” reason, it’s probably better to wait.

No don't give them extra notice. I gave notice a day before pay day and they managed to stop payroll for that month and asked me to leave immediately. I was a student and not sure of my rights so should have fought a bit harder, but it really fucked up my finances.
Don't give notice until you have to and I would be trying to get redundancy out of them.

flowery there were a few cases I found where the court said the employer was allowed to begin notice from the early notice date (admittedly in most of those cases the employee was taking the piss in some way...)