Annual leave and return to work after mat leave

[BacktoWork2019]

I’ve name changed in case of any colleagues using mumsnet!

I’m due to go back to work early next year after maternity leave. I’ve accrued 30 days annual leave since I’ve been off. I have asked to go part time on my return, from 5 days to 2.5 days per week.

My question is whether I can change to part time straight away and then take all my leave as 2.5 days per week? Or will I have to use my leave as 5 days per week then go down to part time?

My boss has suggested the latter. But I would like to stay off as long as possible with baby, and my leave would last twice as long if I went part time first and took it as 2.5 days a week.

Does anyone have any experience with this? I don’t want to be awkward and cause problems with my boss, but my priority is spending time with baby.

I suppose it depends on the date on which you switch to part time and your employers policy. Is there a union or hr you could contact?

I think this would come down to what you and your employer agree to. Have they agreed to the 2.5 days yet? I would maybe find out about that first.

There isn't a rule about how you use your leave, it's between you and your employer. I think they could insist you use it at 5 days a week if they want, as your maternity leave will be over and They can decide when you can become part time really, it's not ultimately up to you.

My employer is ultra flexible. They let us use leave to remain on full time pay for a while after mat leave before going part time, or tack all/some of the extra leave onto the end of mat leave, and is good enough to give only a part time work load as well, but I think they'd be very impatient with us if we wanted to do what you want as we've already been off a year and they need us to get on with our jobs.

Annual leave is based on hours with my employer, full time hours equates to 7.2hrs day/5 day week. Some people do their hours condensed into 4 days so their daily hours equates to 9.

You've accrued full time hours, which then would need to be spread over your new contracted hours. It wouldn't reduce when you've accrued it based on full time hours

For most employers, going from FT to 2.5 days is a material change to your contract and in my case anyway, I had to sign a new contract. My length of service carried over & all the standard benefits etc but I started a new (reduced entitlement) annual leave regime and had to use up my accrued (full time) annual leave before the new contract started. As pps have said, some employers may be more flexible.

I came back part time and used my accrued leave as hours, so I had loads of time off.

The other factor of course is salary. If you're using your 30 days as 5 weeks FT leave, then you're entitled to full pay for those 6 weeks before you drop down to P/T pay. If you're allowed to use them as holiday against your new P/T hours (as 12 weeks) you'll be on a P/T salary.

Sorry 6 weeks FT, 12 weeks PT