Shared Parental Leave & annual leave

[Firstimer703]

I've just gone back to work after 6 months maternity leave and have accrued annual leave plus bank holidays.

DH is now taking Shared Parental Leave until May.

Can an employer force you to tag on your accrued leave on to the end of your mat leave or make you take it before the end of the leave year? Or could I legitimately say I don't want to take it until DH goes back to work?

What I actually want to do is take Monday's off after DH goes back to work but we're in a bit of a debate over the principle and I want to be sure of my rights.

Hope someone can clear that up for me!

They don’t have to agree requests for holidays on your preferred dates and they also don’t have to let you carry holiday over unless that’s necessary to avoid you losing it.

@flowery & that's the case even in this situation?

The Monday thing would be unfair to your colleagues. Loads of people want Mondays off and you'd be hogging them.

Yes absolutely. No reason they should allow you to reduce your working days using holiday just because you’ve been on maternity leave. And while they would have to let you carry over holiday if you’d not been given an opportunity to take it, as you do have an opportunity to take it they are fine to refuse carry over.

It’s a nightmare for employers when women who have been on maternity leave come back with loads of holiday to take and then obviously have holiday from the new holiday year as well. People could have 35, 40 or even more days they need to take. Much less disruptive all round if leave accrued during maternity leave is taken in a chunk at the end of the maternity leave.

You can request to take it when you like, but they don't have to approve it. Just because you accrued it on mateenity leave doesn't change the rules that apply to how yoy can take it. It depends on what works best for the business, as it usually does. Your best bet is to have a conversation with work