Redundancy on maternity leave

[Chmc87]

Hi, I have just been made redundant on maternity leave - I work in sales and the company is barely making any money, so it wasn't a surprise. However, I don't think the money I am receiving is fair, and I wanted to ask if anyone else has been in this situation. I am due back to work from maternity (taking the full year) at the end of November 2025, my statutory maternity period has expired and I am no longer being paid by the government or my employer. I have been with the company 7 years, so they have given me 7 weeks notice, and are giving me 7 weeks redundancy pay. The part I am querying is the holiday - I have accrued 25 days holiday, and rather than paying those days as a seperate payment, they have asked me to take it during my notice period. So I would only get my 7 weeks notice, and my 7 weeks redunancy. To me it feels they are asking me to come back to work early, and asked me to take holiday, even though I should be on mat leave. I have done lots of research online, and I think I am right. But obviously not 100% sure, has anyone been in a simular position? Thanks

I’m afraid that they are legally allowed to require you to take leave during notice period.

however i would double check with ACAS just in case there are any extra requirements around maternity leave.

They will need to return you to full pay for your notice period.

When i as made redundant, staff on maternity leave had some special consideration.

They are in essence asking you to finish your maternity leave early. They can’t do that. You should still be paid any annual leave you haven’t taken.

I think they could be on dodgy ground here for two reasons.

Firstly, 25 days’ holiday is 5(?) weeks minimum assuming you are FT, so they’d have to give you ten weeks’ notice to take that leave to comply with statutory requirements.

You’d also have to “return” from maternity leave before they can allocate you that holiday - so is the 7 week notice period running from after your return date (ie from November?).

If not then they cannot require you to take holiday. As the notice period is statutory only, you’re still likely entitled to full pay if the notice takes effect whilst you’re still on leave (ie they aren’t waiting until November). But they cannot then require you to take holiday whilst you are still on maternity leave.

Contractual leave might be treated differently (ie holiday over the statutory minimum) so I’d say you probably need legal advice on this one to be sure.

In essence, though, aren't you getting 14 weeks pay whatever which way they administrate it? You just get it a bit earlier if it starts from now rather late November.

Are they asking you to work the 2 non annual leave weeks of your notice period?

The first £30k of the (7 weeks) redundancy payment is tax free.

Are they saying you're not entitled to be paid notice?

Clearly not. They’re saying the 5 weeks of leave has to be taken during the notice period rather than her work and have the leave paid separately.

As you are currently on unpaid mat leave, do you mean they want to pay you for five weeks which will be seen as holiday, and then pay you for 7 weeks notice and 7 weeks redundancy? So, in effect, they are asking you to return from unpaid mat leave early and be paid for 5 weeks as holiday? Financially, it’s all the same isn't it, except this way you’ll be paid sooner for the holiday period.

Very clearly from the OP they want to return her to payroll for 7 weeks notice, during which she will take 5 weeks of leave.

I hadn’t read that from the OP, hence my comments. I agree, that’s unacceptable and holiday should be paid separately.

It’s not unacceptable at all. Unless OP wants to work the notice period.

Ahh that wasnt clear to me.

In that case, I think Op doesn't want to work notice.

She wants to be paid notice then paid accrued AL.

The poster who says you they must give you 10 weeks notice if they require you to take 5 weeks annual leave is correct. They also cannot force you to take annual leave whilst on maternity leave, nor can they force you to terminate your maternity leave early. By asking you to take your annual leave during your notice period, they are in effect trying to get you to return to work early. They cannot do that. They must pay you your notice pay plus your accrued holiday pay. I'm sure they want to save money if the business is struggling, but they can't force you to take less than your legal entitlement.

Minor correction - the penultimate sentence of my post should say that they must pay you your redundancy pay plus your accrued holiday. You may also be entitled to notice pay.

But she is being made redundant whilst on mat leave. They cannot force her to come back to work early. She should be paid her notice and redundancy, and any accrued holiday, unless they will wait until she returns from mat leave to make her redundant.

The 10 weeks is only correct if the contract doesn't say something different.

10 weeks notice from the employer for 5 weeks annual leave is the legal minimum under the Working Time Regulations 1998. An employment contract cannot override the law. Any term in OP's contract that purports to allow her employer to give less than 10 weeks notice when requiring her to take 5 weeks of her annual leave is invalid.

OP, just ring ACAS for advice, they should be able to tell you what the law is and what to do next

Thanks everyone, I spoke to acas this morning. In essence I think there are 2 issues as someone mentioned above, they are asking me to come back to work early from maternity leave, and cutting my year short (I’ll be on garden leave, so have to be available for work).
My 25.5 days holiday is on a 4 day working week, so they are asking me to use all my holiday in the 7 weeks notice. They can enforce you to take holiday, but have to give you twice as much notice. So I should be given 50 days notice to be asked to take it or they need to pay a seperate payment of my holiday.
I should be getting 7 weeks redundancy, 7 weeks notice and my holiday pay.

Can they not just start your notice period from the day you are due to return to work and also direct you to take your annual leave from that day (which they'd have enough time to do)? So you'd still just get the 7 weeks plus 7 weeks, but delayed by the time you have remaining of your unpaid maternity leave.

The govt website seems to think the contract can override it (in this case, I agree it's not commonly the case): https://www.gov.uk/holiday-entitlement-rights/booking-time-off

If the contract says something different about the notice a worker or employer should give, what’s in the contract will apply.

Apologies. Misremembering something I don't come across very often. I should have checked. You are correct that a contract can vary the amount of notice required. However, I haven't seen any employment contracts that seek to change the amount of notice the employer must give when stipulating when the employee must take annual leave. I'm not saying they don't exist, but I suspect most employers stick with the statutory timescale.

All the ones I write do :)