Maternity leave/holiday intentions - are these correct?

[onedaybaby]

Hi,

I work for a very small company who appear to be burying their head in the sand when it comes to my maternity leave questions and that I will be taking the full 52 weeks. There is no maternity policy to refer to and it will only be statutory.

I want to submit a letter with my MAT B1 form telling them of my intentions and just want to check that my plan is correct.

• I want to take all my holiday for 2012 before I start my maternity leave, a week before the due date.
  

• There will be 4 bank holidays during the 2012 part of my leave so I would add those on to my holiday.
  

This is what is causing my main confusion and work are ignoring my emails requesting what happens with bank holidays.

My contract does not mention bank holidays, just that I get 25 days. However, the office is always shut on bank holidays and I get paid for them e.g my salary that month does not differ.

Am I right in thinking I can tag these onto my holiday?

If I can do this, I would assume that any 2013 bank holidays that occur when I am off can be taken after my maternity leave has finished. I wouldn't be taking any 2013 annual leave until later in the year.

Should the letter also include a request to reduce the number of days that I want to return to, or should this be done at a later date?

Many thanks.

[Ellypoo]

If your contract states 25 days holiday, then I believe that your entitlement is 25 days Plus bank holidays. I think that this means that you should be able to tag these onto your holiday.

I wouldn't say anything about reducing your days on return at this stage - I would leave this until you are on your maternity leave, and then request a meeting with your manager about returning to work, and about requesting flexible working. Make sure you do this at least 8 weeks before you are due to return to work though, so that you have enough time to sort get things sorted out - bear in mind that they don't have to grant you flexible working, but must have a valid business reason not to.

[Lonecatwithkitten]

Be aware that if the baby comes early your maternity leave will automatically start regardless of any annual holiday booked.
Adding holiday on is acceptable, but like any regular holiday request they can refuse it.

[onedaybaby]

I hadn't thought about the holiday request being refused. I assumed that I would just take all my 2013 leave. If they did refuse some/all of it, would I then expect the days to be paid to me instead?


Original post should have said 2013 not 2012

[Rockchick1984]

You wouldn't be paid holiday pay unless not returning to work.

[Rockchick1984]

Sorry that wasn't very clear - you wouldn't be paid holiday pay in lieu of actually taking the holidays unless you were not returning to work.

[catladycourtney1]

I was told that I couldn't use my bank holidays as extra days - if I was on maternity leave when the bank holidays fell, then tough, basically. I expected that anyway, since our bank holidays are separate from our annual leave iykwim.

[SeeYouSoon]

"You wouldn't be paid holiday pay unless not returning to work. " surely that depends on the company? my co paid me some holiday when I last was off on mat leave.

[ceeveebee]

My company is going to pay me some holiday pay, as I have returned to work with over 8 weeks to take and couldn't feasibly do my job if I take them all before end of holiday year (June in my case) so they are going to pay me for a couple of weeks

[flowery]

You are entitled to all contractual holidays, which includes bank holidays if you are contractually entitled to them, which if you always get them, you probably are.

In terms of paying out holiday, by mutual agreement an employer could pay out any holiday over and above the statutory minimum of 28 days (for FT employees) but unless the employee is leaving, at least those 28 days must be physically taken.

And yes, an employer can refuse a holiday request, although most don't refuse to allow employees to tag it on to maternity leave, because its less disruptive to let them do that.

[ceeveebee]

Flowery - out of interest, is the 28 days prorated for the period it covers (I know it would be for the days I work - 3 days a week) - I returned to work on 1 October and holiday year runs to 30 June so would my minimum be 28 x 3/5 x 9/12 = 13 days? Or is it just 28 x 3/5 = 17 days?

[flowery]

um. You've lost me.

Basically you get holiday exactly as if you were still at work. So for the holiday year starting 1 July while you were off and ending 30 June, you get 17 days, just as you would have done had you been at work. The only difference is that the time available to you to physically take that holiday is shorter, which is why it's usually best to allow women to tag at least some of their holiday on to their maternity leave.

[ceeveebee]

Sorry, I wasn't very clear. I know what my allowance is as HR have given me those figures (prorated 30 days plus prorated bank holidays which fall on my non working days) and I'm happy with the way they've calculated this

My question was about the legal minimum number of days I have to physically take vs what I can be paid for - you mention above that legally 28 days must be taken as holiday. My employer has offered to pay me in lieu of taking holidays because there isn't enough time for me to use my whole allowance in the period between return to work and end of holiday year.

Thanks

[flowery]

Oh I see. Legally you have to physically take 5.6 weeks, which for FT is 28 days, and for you would be 17 days. To complicate matters slightly, only 4 weeks must be taken in a year, so the rest could be carried over, but 5.6 weeks must be taken not paid out.

[ceeveebee]

Thanks, that's great

[AdriftAndOutOfStardust]

you are correct about the bank holidays during the annual leave you will be taking before your leave starts - effectively any week that includes a bank holiday can be taken with 4 days leave rather than 5 days.

However, you can't tack any bank holidays from during your mat leave onto you time off - your 12 months of maternity leave is inclusive of all the bank holidays that fall within it.

As someone else mentioned above, you will have to stop being on annual leave and start being on maternity leave on the day the baby comes if you haven't already done so.

NOTE - your employers are only obliged to keep your current job open for you if you go back after 9 months. If you take the full 12 months then they do have to employ you again but it can be doing different things which you may not be necessarily happy about.

[flowery]

"However, you can't tack any bank holidays from during your mat leave onto you time off - your 12 months of maternity leave is inclusive of all the bank holidays that fall within it." Not true. Employees are entitled to all contractual paid leave, and the employer can't restrict this by specifying that 8 days of it must be taken on the nominated bank holidays, meaning women on mat leave lose out. Whether the days in lieu of lost bank holidays can be tacked on to maternity leave or taken at another time is up to the employer.

The 9 months thing is not true either. Returning after 6 months, employees are entitled to their job back, any longer than that and it can be something else suitable.