Annual leave etc after maternity

[dippyGirl5]

Some advice would be greatly appreciated :)

Basically I have lots of leave after returning from maternity. My intention was to use it to effectively reduce my hours by a day a week for as long as possible (my line manager when I left for maternity has done twice). My new manager is pressuring me to use it as quickly as possible. Can they force me to use this as they want as opposed to how I do and how others have in the past? Or do I have any control over this?

Unfortunately employers can dictate when you take your holiday but they should give notice of at least twice the amount of days. So if they said you have to take 5 days off, they need to give you 10 days notice.

Could you negotiate a compromise. Maybe take half as a lump sum and the rest as days AL or half days?

Did you have an agreement that you could use annual leave to effectively work part time when you return?

They don’t have to agree any holiday requests. They can force you to take it on specific days if they want to, or could just refuse holiday requests that aren’t convenient.

Granting annual leave is entirely at their discretion.

If that is their stance then you would be better taking it to extend your maternity leave by a few weeks and negotiating a proper flexible working request.

Thanks everyone. I am just annoyed as my line manager when I went on maternity has done what I want to do twice. While I was on maternity they moved me to a new manager who is putting the pressure on. But sure it's one rule for one and another for the rest! Thanks again!