Work say I can’t carry over A/L to add onto maternity leave

[ALquery]

I work in local authority and my annual leave year is the same as the calendar year.

I’m pregnant and my baby is due in September, so let’s say my twelve months maternity leave would run from September-August.

Work are saying that I can’t carry over any of my 2024 annual leave allowance (to add on to the end of my maternity leave), bar three days. They are saying I have to use it all up before the baby is born in September.

I don’t think this is right, but they are adamant. Can anyone confirm if they are right please? Thank you.

My DD is going on mat leave in October. She can only carry over 5 days AL to next year.

I think they are within their rights to ask that you use up most of your leave before going off.

It's very likely to depend on the specifics of your contract.

Are you a a member of a trade union that is able to check and inform on this?

Is it an option to use your annual leave at the start of your maternity leave and start the maternity leave later?

My company allows 5 days carryover.

That sounds about right. You’ll have to use it up before baby comes.

You should be able to carry all your leave over. Though sometimes they say it's at your managers discretion.

It is fairly standard. The exception being if you start a new leave year and then go on maternity leave straight away, when obviously it wouldn't be possible for you to use it before you go.

The overriding thing to remember is that in 99% of cases your employer can stipulate which dates you take as annual leave, even though most don't. So if they say take it before your mat leave starts, then you have to take it before your mat leave starts.

You also accrue annual leave while you're on mat leave, so you will return with accrued leave too.

Are the three days what you would accrue after September if you were there?

cant you just take it 4 weeks before your mat leave starts ?

I was allowed to carry it all over, plus bank holidays accrued during maternity leave. Ended up starting back with about 59 days of leave. Which is a bit silly really.

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

Yes I wasn’t allowed to carry any over BUT you will accrue holiday whilst on mat leave and can add this on to the end of your leave.

yes they can. The exception I think is any leave accrued DURING your Mat Leave.

Agree with others: use any leave you can’t carry over at the start of your maternity leave, and start your official Mat Leave a few days or whatever later

No, I’d accrue 12 days from the Sept-Dec (including BH).

Gosh I am really surprised by this. I guess I am going to be having a long time off before the birth then!

Yes, I am in a union.

I wanted to carry over as much as possible to try to mitigate the impact of the three months’ unpaid ML at the end. What a pity!

You can carry over leave if you arent able to take the leave in the leave year. If you are able to take the leave beforehand then they don't need to let you carry it over.

You will have the leave from your year off to carry over to the next leave year.

But they are saying the A/L I accrue Sept-Dec of this annual leave year will have to be used before September. I would accrue 12 days during that time, but they say I can only carry over 3 days into 2025.

You will accrue a full years annual leave anyway (whilst your on mat leave) so just add it on to the end? That's what I did, was about 6/7 weeks so it extended it.
Any annual leave in the year you are working just take before you go off.

You still get annual leave on maternity, so if having a year off then use it in last month. My last month of maternity leave was the best, full pay and sleep.

This is the issue. They are saying that the leave I accrue in the first four months of M/L, belong to the 2024 leave year. And so I have to use them all up before I go on maternity leave in September.

Then, once my new annual leave year starts in Jan 2025, I will accrue A/L from Jan-August before going back to work.

I don’t think that’s fair…

I think they're wrong

You will have to use all your AL accrued before your mat leave starts (so, Jan to Sept), then you will continue to accrue leave whilst on mat leave (so, Sept to Dec, Jan to Aug) to be taken next year when mutually convenient

As others have said. You can usually only carry over the maximum your company policy allows (ususally 1 week pro rata). You are expected to take leave prior to maternity leave.

If you cannot take it due to sickness or having to take maternity leave early for example. Then yes you should be able to carry it over.

Remember you will accrue leave during your maternity leave from January-August. So will have a lot of leave to use for only 4 months working that year. You can with their agreement add this onto the end of your maternity leave.

It's not wrong. If youre going on maternity leave and getting maternity pay from your employer (even smp) you're guaranteed to be employed for 9 months more arent you? You dont have to wait to accrue it. Most employers let you take leave you have yet to accrue anyway.

Yes, I think they are quite within their rights to do this.

When I had similar, I tacked my holiday on to the start of my mat leave, with my mat leave starting on my due date (you can't start it later than your due date). If DD had come early I would have had to start my mat leave on the day she was born and lose out on the holiday but she had the good grace to let me get 3 1/2 hours into mat leave before making her grand entrance.

It is perfectly fair.

You're being quite unreasonable here. I've never heard anyone make a fuss about this kind of thing. Its usually very clear in maternity leave and annual leave policies.

Take the leave and stop arguging. If you carry on they'll just tell you you cant take the leave as a lump on your return to be awkward! They can do that!

They are right. They can stipulate when you should take the leave, as long as they give sufficient notice. They are saying that they would like you to take all of this year's AL prior to maternity leave. That's fine. It is within their rights. They can't disadvantage you because you are pregnant, but if they wouldn't let a non-pregnant employee carry over large amounts of AL, they aren't disadvantaging you.