Rocking the boat while on mat leave

[trufflesandolives]

Hi Mumsnet,

I'm on mat leave due to return to work in a few months and I've been going back and forth on emails with my HR point of contact trying to understand how many days of annual leave I have. We agree on the total number but she claims that the part of it that's accrued annual leave can't be used at any point other than if I'm leaving the business. I don't understand given that accrued means future leave that is due to be earned essentially and when I asked at what point in the future will those days of accrued annual leave become earned current annual leave she tells me they won't. Oddly, when she asked for the advice of one of her colleagues they said that I have to use all my X days of annual leave in the next 12 months and they included the days that she has been referring to as accrued and unusable. This was part of an email that she forwarded to me.

I'm in two minds about just letting it go and hoping the HR system will show those accrued days as current leave at some point in the future and hoping that she's just confused or adding my union rep to the email thread for further clarification which might help resolve the matter faster.

I'm hesitant to rock the boat as I otherwise have a great relationship with the business (my manager and the leadership team) and I worry if I involve my union rep they'll find out I'm involving a union and it will go back to them and beyond HR and become a big deal. I just don't want to be penalised in some indirect way and cause more stress to myself (I suffer with enough stress as it is). At the same time I do need all the leave I can get and don't want to be giving it away for no reason.

AIBOC (am I being overly cautious)? Perhaps someone here knows what the whole deal is with accrued annual leave days?

Adding to the original post: for context the number of accrued annual leave days that the HR person is claiming I can't use as holiday is 15 in total so quite a significant amount

Make your case just now whilst fully protected on Mat leave. It might be a terminology misunderstanding but it also might be your HR not knowing what they are doing.

Have you looped your manager in on the conversation yet ?
If not, that's probably the next natural place to go. I would stick with being very calm and confused on how to resolve this.
I wouldn't involve your union until you have exhausted all avenues within HR and the business.

I work in HR and it sounds like your HR colleague is completely wrong. Accrued leave can be taken after maternity leave, you don't have to wait until you leave the company. Send her a link to ACAS if she insists on her nonsense.
https://www.acas.org.uk/your-maternity-leave-pay-and-other-rights/holiday-and-maternity-leave

Edited to add she may be confused because you can't be paid for accrued leave unless you leave a company, but you can use it.

Go up the HR chain and find someone who knows the law and policies.

Yes you can take annual leave that's been accrued (which just means you've built up the entitlement to this annual leave). It's quite usual to add the accrued annual leave immediately onto the end of your maternity, too.

I think your HR contact is just a bit confused and the HR colleague sounds a bit more on the ball.

As you've got the HR colleague's email where they say "I have to use all my X days of annual leave in the next 12 months and they included the days that she has been referring to as accrued and unusable." could you not just reply back on that basis, confirming that you understand that you can indeed take your accrued annual leave, as per the HR colleague's email (kind of skating over the previous miscommunications)

Sounds like they are getting confused.
If you've accrued the leave then you are entitled to take it at some point. Lots of women tack it onto the end of mat leave so they don't have hundreds of leave (accrued + the current years leave) to take during the next year.

If you've accrued the holiday leave then you can book it. Obviously they can decline if it doesn't work for the business.
What you need to be clear about is how long you can carry it forward for - don't lose it whatever you do.
HR person doesn't know their arse from their elbow.