Using leave accrued when working full time, but going back to work compressed hours after maternity?

[darkmode1]

I have always worked full time Mon-Friday.

After maternity leave, I will be doing compressed hours so that I do ten days over nine days, so having one day off every fortnight.

I have 20 days of accrued leave to use directly after my maternity leave ends. There is some confusion in HR/my manager as to whether I should be using nine days to get two weeks off, or ten days.

Is there anyone wise out there who can help, please?

10 days for 2 weeks off.

You haven’t started the new pattern yet, so your days are the original duration, not the longer hours to earn the 10th day as flexi/off.

Thank you

Usually atypical working patterns are handled by counting workdays/holidays in hours rather than whole days, so your compressed 10-days-in-9 would still register as the same 75 hours (or whatever) as someone taking 10-days-in-10 off. Which comes to the same answer as NotMeAgain2 says :)

It would be more straightforward to take your leave in hours rather than days. But nine compressed days and ten none compressed days are the same

Surely the compressed can start when you actually start working again. I do 10 in 9 and we get our leave in hours so it “costs” me more hours to take a day off, which is fair.

I think the confusion with my manager is - I have 20 days of leave to take. On my old, 5 day a week pattern, this equates to exactly four weeks off work.

On my new pattern, it would equate to four weeks and two days off work.

I am not really fussed either way. The leave was accrued on a full time M-F working pattern so for me it makes sense to have four full weeks off just like before maternity.

If your compressing hours into 9 days, it’s still ten days worth of leave your taking so it should be 10 days regardless. Dropping hours would be different but as a pp said, 9 compressed days or 10 normal days would be the same amount of AL.

I’m not sure I’ve explained it very well.

The leave has already been accrued, I have 20 days to ‘spend.’

The question is, when I come to spend those days, what working pattern should work use?

If they are spent according to my old, M-F routine, I take four calendar weeks off:

Mon-Fri, Mon-Fri, Mon-Fri, Mon-Fri

If they are spent according to my new routine (every other Monday off), I will get more time off:

Tue-Fri, Mon-Fri, Tue-Fri, Mon-Fri, Tue-Wed

This would give me four and a half calendar weeks off.

HR say one thing but my manager says another.

You convert the current accrued leave into hours, eg 10 days is 80 hours /75 hrs /10 * your daily hours. Then as you deduct the number of hours you are in leave for.

Does it go:

Mat leave end
New work pattern begins on next working day
And you then want to take holidays during the first 2 weeks of your new work pattern?

This.

It's 4 calendar weeks.

I work condensed hours, your leave needs to be converted into hours, you can say oh if you take two weeks off it's 10 days but as soon as you start taking one day off it gets more complicated, it all needs to be in hours. Your manager should know this

Others have explained it already but your leave is really in hours not days. When you work a standard pattern it tends to be called days for convenience but a day just equals 7.5 hours (or whatever a standard day is for you).

I work compressed hours, I have a short week and a long week, if I take a "week" off on my short week it is 33ish hours, if I take a week off on my long week it is 42ish hours. If I take 2 consecutive weeks off it is 75 hours, exactly the same as it was when I worked my 10 days over 10 days rather than 9.

You don't get more annual leave days by switching to compressed hours, that would be very unfair.

HR manager here.

For part timers, compressed hours and those who don't work the same number of hours per day, for fairness, your leave needs to be converted into hours AND bank holidays should be included. If a bank hol falls on your non working day, you should have that to take at another time. (if it falls on a day you would have usually worked but don't because it's a BH you should use your enhanced AL entitlement).

As above, for a two week holiday you should use 75hrs leave (if you work 7.5hrs a day that is!)

Your 20 days accrued leave was earned at say 7hours 30 minutes a day - 20 x 7.5 = 150 hours.

Your new day is say 8.33 hours so you deduct 8.33 for each days leave. What you need to think about is how you take your leave. So on your 4 day week you deduct 4 x 8.33 but on your 5 day week you deduct 5 x 8.33.

Watch out for BH as these also deduct 8.33 so you may find you have less leave to take when you choose. Ideally have your NWD on a Monday.

Ignore this advice about BHs. You have exactly the same as someone working full time, it's just about when you get to take it.

20 days + 8 bank holiday = 28 days

You either, as a full timer, have 20 days to choose and 8 that fall without choice

As a compressed person, you get 28 days (in hours), and if you work 7 days, book 7 on the set BHs and have the extra day to take whenever.

It's not true that you get less than a full timer OR it matters (for the total) when you have a non working day.

Just FYI.

Oh sorry, I've had wine, I should have read the post properly. Less leave when you choose is correct. Hands up for that, sorry @Harassedevictee@Harassedevictee

A lot of people here are missing the point. Your new working pattern is irrelevant for these purposes. You finish mat leave, are on annual leave based on your FT working pattern and FT pay and THEN start compressed hours (with reduced pay). This is the standard way to do it and you miss out otherwise 😊 Annual leave for your new compressed hours will then likely be calculated in hours rather than days but you don’t need to worry about that in terms of the leave you’ve already accrued.

Whoops you’re absolutely right - I completely misread and thought OP was reducing her hours. I’m the one who has entirely missed the point 😅🙈