Big 4 accounting firm - Forced to take accrued annual leave & bank holidays before maternity leave?

[RaynarsWheel]

Hi,
I work at one of the Big 4.

Following an initial HR chat, I'm going to be forced to take accrued annual leave and bank holidays prior to my due date or lose them by taking maternity leave- is this normal/legal?

Example:
Our holiday year runs 1st Jan to 31st Dec.
I'm entitled to 25 days leave, plus English bank holidays (but I never take the bank holidays on the exact literal days, it's just that I have 8 days I can log on a timesheet for days off).
Baby is due on 1st July.

So, say I accrue 12 days of annual leave, and 6 bank holiday days (between 1st Jan and 1st July).
I take a week of holiday in March.

That leaves me with 7 days of holiday and 6 bank holiday days accrued by the baby's expected due date.

HR are saying that if I don't use them, I lose them - I cannot tag them onto the end of maternity leave when I return in July 2020. I must take them before starting mat leave on 1st July (unless baby leaves early, in which case I'm allowed to roll over up to two weeks of annual leave into the next holiday year, not more).

They are allowed to apply normal carry over rules unless doing so would mean you would not have an opportunity to take your holiday.

It’s not that you won’t be able to take your holiday, it’s just that you would prefer to take it at another time, and it’s ok for them to say no to that.

I had to do the same. Any leave acccured upto my maternity leave date had to be taken prior to going on maternity leave.

I had to do the same, also big global company. I wanted to start my leave pre-baby at 38 weeks so I took the last 4 days of my annual leave on and started my Mat leave at 38+5. I ended up giving birth at 9.30am the morning after I finished work. So 4 days before I was planning to start my Mat leave. Since it automatically starts when you give birth I’m now owed the 4 days annual leave. I have yet to discuss with HR what will happen but I’m expecting them to either pay it out or agree that in these circumstances it will be added on to the end of my maternity leave - that would comply with the ACAS guidance. However, if I hadn’t booked the annual leave before the start of my maternity leave it would have been lost.

We have the same policy where I work - global bank. I just started my maternity leave on my due date and took the week before as annual leave.

OP I'm not sure this is a hill to die on. I'd keep my head below the parapet if I were you. Take the leave and enjoy the time off.

In fact the whole reason for statutory leave being enshrined in law is to ensure the workers of this country enjoy time off with their family, rest and stay health (that's the theory!). So exercise that hard won right and take the time off to forget about work. It isn't like they're saying you can't have your statutory leave.

Save your battles for much bigger things, honestly!

I don't see it's a huge issue.

I planned to go on mat leave eg 1st Jan. took first 2 weeks as leave (full pay) started officially on leave on 14th Jan.

You accrue holidays all through leave to use at the end.

Well, your boss either needs to let you take your holiday before mat leave, or sign off an exception if that is better for the needs of the business.

Hi all,

A small update - good news- my manager has agreed to let me take the accrued holiday!! (grudgingly)

When I explained that HR won't allow me to tack into the end of may leave, relented.

I explained that I want to take it so either I need approval to get in the annual leave before mat leave OR my manager needs to tell me on writing that I can't take it (as she originally indicated) and I'll set up a chat with HR so they can agree a way forward.

I think my manager wasn't aware of HR not allowing me to tack it on,.. I understand that they need me on the project until key deadlines are over... But I said there's no way I can just work until my due date and lose all the Holidays I'm due...

So a good result!!

Thanks for the steer on this - I was surprised at the setup but it gave me the confidence to challenge my manager on it.

Glad you’ve got it resolved. I honestly think it would have been daft if your line manager to rely on you to be working critical projects until your due date - only 5% or so of babies actually arrive on their due date and although with a first baby you are more likely to be late you could also be early. I was 6 days late with my second so decided to finish 2 weeks ahead of my due date this time thinking I’d have 3 weeks or so at home to arrange Christmas- I left the office at 5.30pm on Tuesday, started labour at 6.30am and had given birth by 9.30am on Wednesday. I got lots of jokes about my impressively efficient delivery when I sent my work colleagues the baby photo before COB on Wednesday!

I work for a local autority and thats the same. Im on annual leave at the mo, maternity starts 22nd jan, worked out quite well for me