Bank Holidays and maternity leave

[Maternityconfusion]

Hi everyone

I am very confused about what happens with bank Holidays when I am on maternity and I am reading mixed answers whilst doing my research.

My holiday entitlement is 5 weeks plus bank Holidays. My department works the bank Holidays accept Christmas and we therfore get the time back in leiu.

My employer has told me I don't accrue the bank Holidays. Now I'm pretty sure that as that only leaves me with 5 weeks and the statutory minimum is 5.6 weeks the least they will have to do is give me back the point 6.

My problem is I feel like I'm being treated less favorably because I am on maternity and I thought my contractual benefits had to continue whilst on maternity leave. So if I were to get 5 weeks plus the bank Holidays in leiu whilst I was working, I should get the same whilst on maternity because I should be treated as if I was at work.

The CAB website seems to agree with me. Various other places seem to agree and say if my contract says my leave entitlement is 25 days PLUS bank Holidays then this is what I should accrue.

However the maternity action website says

"All employees are entitled to 28 days statutory annual leave. If your employer provides 28 days annual leave, including Bank Holidays, your employer should allow you to take paid holiday at another time, as the European Court of Justice case of Gomez said that a woman is entitled to take her statutory annual leave as well as her maternity leave. This may also apply to fixed holidays that are part of your statutory annual leave entitlement but the law is not clear and you may wish to seek further advice.

If you are entitled to 28 days annual leave, plus Bank Holidays, you should check your contract or maternity policy to see if you are allowed to take Bank Holidays or fixed holidays that fall during maternity leave at another time. If your employer allows employees who are sick on a bank holiday to take a day off in lieu, they should also allow women on maternity leave to do the same, as it could be discriminatory not to."

So now I'm confused! I don't understand why I wouldn't accrue this time off. Essentially my colleagues who are not on maternity leave are getting extra days off.

I've spoken to Acas who although made it clear that I should be getting the 5.6, kind of avoided the fact that even if my employee allows me the 5.6 this is still less than what my contracts says.

Can anyone shed any light? I know I have to just put this into writing to my employer but I was hoping someone might give me some hope!

Thanks for reading this far

Bank holidays are irrelevant if you work them and get other days off instead. Red herring. If you work full time, you are getting 33 days paid leave in total. You are entitled to accrue it through maternity leave as normal.

Thanks flowery. But why does the maternity action website say it depends on if my employer allows people who are sick to have it back in lieu?!

I take it the same as you, I get 33 days off a year but there are lots of mixed messages out there. And maternity action is where most people go for this kind of thing!!

This citizens advice link may help here, but all the discussion about bank holidays really doesn’t matter in your case, because you don’t get them off anyway. You are entitled to all your contractual benefits, including holiday, and that’s that.