NHS Maternity leave, annual leave and sickness. SPD

[charli07985]

I am after some advice. I am currently 23 weeks pregnant. I have been told this week i have SPD. Work have been fantastic and made many changes to help with this so i can stay at work as long as possible (which i what i want to try and do).
My mat leave officially starts on my due date, i am taking the majority of my annual leave prior to my due date, which will mean me finishing work 2 days before i am 35 weeks pregnant.
Like i said i am wanting to stay at work as long as possible but understand this may become more of a challenge now that i have SPD.
My question is if i do go off sick, say at 30 weeks with this SPD and i am signed off by my GP up until when my annual leave starts, will this effect my annual leave and the ability for me to still take my annual leave prior to my mat leave?
I am concerned that they will make me take my annual leave as sick and then begin my mat leave at 36 weeks, so potentially meaning i will lose out on my annual leave????
Obviously this isnt something i am planning or wanting to happen, but what i am concerned about is that if i am at risk of losing my annual leave it will prevent me going off sick, if i really need to.
Any help or guidance would be much appreciated.

[MaverickSnoopy]

What happens to everything you accrue during your leave? Or are they just talking about holiday accrued before mat leave starts?

[thegamblersmrs]

Must just be different for every trust then. I go off in April and didnt think I'd be able to take too much as wouldn't have accrued any.
My colleague came back with full years entitlement and the next years so I knew we could carry over.

[MoreProseccoNow]

I'm NHS too (in Scotland- Fife) & we must take all our annual leave for the financial year before finishing up for maternity leave. Not allowed to carry over leave between financial years.

Worked fine for me as my DD was due in May & I took a year off from end of March.

However was a PITA for my colleague who was due in July & had to finish in April.

[thegamblersmrs]

All policies should be accessible, you should be able to access them yourself to check.

This is the one from the annual leave and sick leave that would answer the OPs question but may just be specific to my trust.

39. Any employee who is not able to use up their leave entitlement in a given year because of sick leave will be entitled to the difference between any annual leave and/or public holidays taken before sick leave began and the statutory entitlement. From 1st April 2009 the Working Time Directive statutory entitlement to annual leave is 5.6 weeks (28 days). This should be carried over and added to the entitlement in the new leave year or, where an employee terminates and does not return to work, should be paid at full pay rates in lieu of leave.

[villamariavintrapp]

I don't have the policy, they said 28 days was the maximum, apparently this is what they allow if you are on long term sick leave or absent for any other reason, and so also mat leave. But to be honest it took months of arguing to get to that point, previously they had said a week.

[thegamblersmrs]

@villamariavintrapp do you have access to the policy? I'm gg&c and ours are all public. My friends are all Lothian and they used there's at the end too.
Is it managers discretion?

[villamariavintrapp]

I'm in Scotland too, and not able to take all the leave at the end. It is discriminatory, mat leave is a statutory right, which is what the BMA argued, but nevertheless I wasn't able to use all my annual leave, nor be paid for it in lieu.

[thegamblersmrs]

Might be different in England with privatisation. I'm in Scotland where it's not a problem to take at the end.
All policies re leave should be on HR section of staffnet or ring HR for access to the policy.

[Intelinside]

Can you share the exact wording of the policy? Do you mean carry over to a new leave year, or to the end of your maternity period?

[Steakandchips3]

Nhs trust I meant!

[Steakandchips3]

It is true as I have recently experienced it myself as has a colleague of mine.They have changed the rules which I think is discriminatory. I got the union involved and after months of talks I was given the accrued annual leave back but the policy for my particular bus trust has changed to only carry over one weeks worth of annual leave if having a year off.

[Spam88]

I'm surprised if some trusts don't let you carry it over, surely it's discrimination not to allow you the same amount of annual leave as an employee who isn't taking mat leave?

[villamariavintrapp]

Yes be careful, they may not let you take it all at the end. I think they have changed the rules. The absolute most I was allowed to carry last time was 28 days, and that was after getting the BMA involved and arguing for many months..

[Steakandchips3]

Be careful as some nhs trusts only allow you to carry over a weeks annual leave if you are taking a year off. You used to be able to tag any unused and accrued annual leave to the end of mat leave but the rules have changed.

[thegamblersmrs]

Not that I'm aware of @StealthPolarBear, I've just handed my matb1 form in and I also work nhs. I've taken 1 weeks annual leave prior to going on mat leave and will take the other 6 on my return.

[Intelinside]

Stealth, that's also not right. Your employers seem to be doing a number on you/the person you know!

[MaverickSnoopy]

I was in this exact position but not nhs, although I was public sector.

The doctor signed me off sick until the start of my annual leave which was something like 35w + 5 days. My annual leave ended on my due date and my mat leave started.

Employers cannot automatically commence your mat leave until you are 36 weeks pregnant. You may want to check the exact dates as it's something like the Sunday starting the 36th week. So if you are 36 weeks on the Thursday then it's from the Sunday before when you're still 35 weeks. So you need to make sure that any doctors note ends the Friday before. Also bear in mind that to cancel your annual leave, employers must give you double the amount of notice, so if you're taking 5 weeks of annual leave, they must give you 10 weeks notice. In your case they would need to cancel your leave by the time you are 25 weeks pregnant.

It also occurred to me when I was in your shoes that most employers wouldn't really want to be the employer that cancelled your annual leave because you're pregnant and unwell .

Ultimately being at work with spd can be hard. I had it and sciatica and was on crutches. There were days when I got stuck places and even crutches didn't help. I did too much and didn't stop soon enough. From memory I probably stopped at about 28 weeks. I was in horrific pain and even the physio didn't help. As soon as I was signed off I was able to slow down significantly. Although I was still on about 3 hours sleep and night which meant that my body just wouldn't repair properly. Be kind to yourself it's a difficult time.