Maternity leave and annual leave

[smiler01]

Morning all,

I wondered if someone could offer me some information on maternity leave.....

Whilst I am on maternity leave I am aware I continue to accrue my annual leave but wondered if this includes bank holidays too?

We don't really have a hr dept and I'm the person who does payroll and holidays etc so I'm the one who would normally look into our staffs rights and inform my bosses etc which ill need to do again for me I'm sure they will doube check what I tell them this time but id like to make sure I know what's right ad wat I'm entitled too.

Thank you in advance

[flowery]

You accrue all your contractual paid leave entitlements during maternity leave. The fact that you are usually required to take some of it on set days doesn't mean you have to lose it. You are also entitled not to be treated less favourably as a result of taking maternity leave, which reducing your paid leave entitlement would be.

How much holiday do you actually get? If it's 5.6 weeks including bank holidays then that's the statutory minimum anyway, so no chance of any argument otherwise.

[smiler01]

yes we get 20 days plus bank hols so 5.6 weeks a year.

Thank you for your reply :)

[Stevie77]

Bumping for related question -

Is annual leave accrued during the whole of maternity leave (ordinary mat leave AND additional mat leave)? In the staff handbook it claims it is accrued only during OML but I couldn't find anything that specific on gov.co.uk, it just states 'maternity leave'.

Does it include the contractual allocation plus bank holidays (we get 25 days + bank holidays)?

[flowery]

Holiday accrues throughout maternity leave, your handbook is 5 years out of date.

It's contractual holiday entitlement and it sounds like you are contractually entitled to a total of 33 days.

[Stevie77]

Yes, well I am not surprised it is out of date

Will contact ACAS for pinpointing to relevant copy of the legislation to have to hand when discussing with HR.

[Stevie77]

And, thanks!

[TarkaTheOtter]

I think unless they are needed to make up your stat min 28 days then bank holidays are a grey area. My former employer (a large university) didn't let me accrue them despite me questioning it. I did quite a bit of research on different maternity policies and it seemed to be about 50/50.

[flowery]

Employees are entitled to all their contractual benefits throughout maternity leave, including paid holiday. Not paid holiday except if it has to be taken on bank holidays, just paid holiday. No exceptions for holiday which is normally taken on specific days.