Do you accrue lieu days whilst on maternity leave?

[ateles]

I have returned to work after taking maternity leave and have loads of holiday to use up before the end of the year. My two bosses can't agree on whether I am entitled to take the lieu days as well. My contract states that I am entitled to a day in lieu and double pay for working public holidays...but obviously i didn't work any public holidays while i was on maternity leave...am so confused!! Can anyone shed any light? Thanks

yes, there was a thread about this very recently,

might be worth a look in archives

my firm told me that leagally you dont acrue bank holidays while on mat leave

so I didnt get any of mine back

Thanks, I will have a look through the archives.

Assuming your baby was due before this month, you will have been entitled to accrue leave at the same rate as normal during OML and at statutory rate during AML.

If I understand it correctly from your OP, if you don't work a bank holiday, you get paid it, if you do work it, you get extra pay plus an alternative day off instead, is that right?

So you only need an extra day off to compensate you for the paid day off you missed. And because you haven't missed any of them, you don't need them. You will have accrued bank holidays during your OML, so can take them.

Please correct me if I have not understood you correctly.

I will quote from my contract what it states about public holidays: 'For all hours worked on public holidays employees will receive double their normal hourly rate of pay, plus time off in lieu. Employees are entitled to eight public holidays each year. Employees should note that these public holidays are an addition to their annual entitlement.'

there is a load of other gumph but I think that is the relevant bit. Does that help? Sorry for being so useless!

I think the double pay and lieu day stuff is a bit of a red herring.

Here's what you are entitled to.

During OML you would have been entitled to contractual benefits including annual leave and bank holidays if your contract says you get these in addition to annual leave.

So you are entitled to any bank holidays that fell during your OML. You are not entitled to double pay for them, because you are not working them, and you are not entitled to an extra lieu day as well - as I understand it a day in lieu of a bank holiday is given to those who work them to make up for the fact that they haven't had an extra day off. You haven't worked them, so you should just add however many you've missed to your annual leave total and take them as soon as you can.

Thanks for your help. So, to clarify...are you saying that I am entitled to take the 8 days as holiday even though I haven't worked them?

Yep. Go for it.

Ateles,I went back to work recently and HR told me that I was entitled to 8 extra days off, in addition to my annual leave, to represent the bank hols that occurred during my 1st 9 months of MAT leave. Enjoy your extra time off!

That is just what I wanted to hear! My boss is an idiot...I can't wait to tell him he is wrong! Thanks for all your help.

Has that bank holidays thing always been the case flowery - because I was definately told that you didn't accrue BHs when on M/L when I was on maternity leave in 2007/2008

Was just going to ask the same thing as Northern as our maternity policy definitely says that you do not accrue bank hols whilst on maternity leave (and yes, I know I should know this working in HR but just accepted that whoever wrote the policy would have checked this out).

ceebee74 - are you NHS as well?

Northern - yes I am, how did you guess?

It's a sex discrimination thing. During OML and for babies due from this month, during AML as well, you are entitled to all your contractual benefits except pay. This includes paid leave. So the fact that your employer normally specifies that 8 of those days must be taken on specific named days doesn't mean you should miss out on them.

The OP's contract makes it clear that she is entitled to 8 extra days leave on top of her annual leave entitlement, which would normally be taken on the actual bank holidays but may involve a different day taken in lieu instead.

NL it was unclear for a while but I believe there was case law exploring it, can't remember when though, brain's fuzzy at the moment.

Adding to that, with the statutory holiday requirements increasing, for many employers the 24 days includes at least some bank holidays, and when it goes up to 28 may include all of them anyway, so there will be no ambiguity.

IIRC a few years ago when I was last in a 'proper' job and this issue was unclear, we did not make clear an entitlement to paid bank holidays in addition to the annual leave entitlements in contracts. I think we used to say something like the company may choose to observe bank holidays and the office may be closed, or some such nonsense. But basically they always did and everyone had a paid day off so that wouldn't have helped us really.

Bank holidays aren't any different in law from any other holiday really, the only difference is that they may be in the contract separately and the employer may specify when you take them, although with people working them as the OP can, they might be taken at any time in any case.