Maternity leave vs annual leave

[Doughnut100]

Hi, I'm hoping someone can advise me or give me a link to an official page so I can see the rules and share with my employer if I need to.

I'm on 12 months mat leave and I've accrued annual leave. My employer says I have to use the annual leave before my mat leave ends because it doesn't roll over to next year. So I'll still have 12 months off and return on the same date, but I'll get paid in full for the days that were annual leave and my mat leave will have been 11 months or so.

Other mums I know have said that you're supposed to be able to take your annual leave on the end of your maternity leave, so you extend your time off to 12 months + annual leave accrued.

Does anyone know the legal basis for this? Thanks in advance. (I've done some internet searching but I'm still not clear)

I am currently on mat leave for 12 months (currently feeding my 1 week old) and will be entitled to use my full annual leave for the year. I intend using it to phase going back full time at the end of the year. This doesn’t sound right to me.

You can’t take leave during maternity leave. You have to return to work (payroll perspective) in order to take your leave You’re legally entitled to 12 months on mat leave and your employer can it override that. They can make you take the accrued leave before physically returning though.

*can’t override that

It carries over and is a requirement to allow that for women on maternity leave, even if they don’t allow it under other circumstances

Call Acas. They will give you the full legal position and how it applies for your situation.

You are definitely entitled to a full 12 months maternity leave and you should then be able to take your accrued annual leave after that - so you would be back at work but on holiday. Citizens advice says “You build up holiday as normal while you’re on maternity leave. If you can’t take your holiday because you’re on maternity leave, your employer should let you carry over up to 5.6 weeks of unused days (28 days if you work 5 days a week) into your next holiday year.” So they are definitely on shaky ground!

Pregnant then screwed is a great website to check out and they give advice about stuff like this.

You are legally entitled to a full 52 weeks of Maternity Leave made up of standard and additional mat leave

On your return to work (after the 52 weeks), you will have the accrued holiday available to you.

Anything less than this is not legal.

It gets carried over I'm sure. Contact ACAS.

www.citizensadvice.org.uk/work/rights-at-work/parental-rights/rights-while-youre-on-maternity-leave/

www.acas.org.uk/your-maternity-leave-pay-and-other-rights/holiday-and-maternity-leave

They can ask you to use it all or as much as possible before your return to work date. That's different from your official maternity leave end date!

Wow thank you all so much for your quick responses and thanks for the acas link @Comefromaway

I feel much better equipped to talk to HR now. She was so firm when she said I couldn't roll it over! I'm actually really surprised because I think she's normally really fair and knowledgeable. Perhaps it is just a genuine mistake on her part.

But if you want to be paid beyond the 39 weeks SMP you may need to take the AL or use KIT days which can be mid ml.

The actual legislation is Equality Act 2010. It doesn’t specifically mention holiday pay but that act in conjunction with your legal and contractual rights to holiday pay & leave mean that not allowing holiday entitlement to be carried over (or paid in lieu over and above statutory) would mean you are being treated less favourably due to pregnancy & maternity.

There’s this from Gov.uk too