My employers have paid my holiday up to the end of maternity leave, can they do this?

[jennieflower]

I hope this makes sense, I'm on maternity leave, the paid leave runs out mid May, I was planning to take the two weeks holiday I would have accrued at the end of the paid leave and start back at work in June but they've actually paid me a lump sum which means I won't be entitled to take any holiday for the rest of the year.

Can they legally do this? I was planning to cut my hours when I go back so I'm going to end up owing them money at this rate

How does your holiday year work? Is it April-March, or christmas-christmas? Or something different? Could it be that they it is correct?

It could just be an error, and easily sorted by you re-paying a lump sum over and above what you want for your fortnight in May.

No. It is against the Working Time Directive. You should be allowed to actually take your holiday, unless you are carrying large amounts of it over into a different holiday year. The only circumstances under which they are allowed to just pay you in lieu of holiday accrued is if you leave employment.

Of course. I think I shall stay away from these threads until my pregnancy is over...

sorry - I don't really understand this - are you saying they have paid you all your maternity leave and annual leave up - front ? sounds very odd - esp as you are crossing 2 tax years ! An employer would usually treat annual leave separately from maternity leave - it is your right to ask to take it when you want - sounds like a cock - up - I would ask then about it - if it is a small employer it may be that they don't deal with this very often !!

rofl at llareggub - get thy pregnancy brain to bed!

Jennie it's probably that they don't know and are trying to do the right thing, so it should hopefully be relatively easy to sort out.

I work for a very large employer, and they paid my maternity leave and annual leave up front, even though the leave year hadn't ended when I returned. I would also have preferred to have taken the holiday at the end of my maternity leave, but was told I couldn't. So I don't think it's that unusual.

They are a fairly big company, they employ about 150 people and have 5 or 6 on maternity leave at the moment so they should know whats what.

They've only paid my holiday, not maternity pay.

I wouldn't assume they know something like that. The fact that it is illegal to pay in lieu and that you must be given every opportunity to actually take your holiday isn't basic-level knowledge, so with a company with only 150 employees they may not have anyone with sufficient in-depth knowledge or experience to put the pieces of legislation together in that way.

Do they have an HR person/people?

yes I agree, my company obviously didn't know, and they are pretty good on other policies such as flexible working - if I'd known, then I'm sure I wouldn't have had a problem getting the holiday instead of the pay, but I didn't, and it's way too late now!