Taking my holiday entitlement before mat leave??

[Kacie]

Hi,

My new holiday entitlement of the standard 28 days inc. bank hols, runs from Jan 1st - Dec 31st next year.

I can go on maternity leave from 29th March next year (pending scan to confirm edd).

This mat leave will run up until 27th Dec so I will be unable to take my accrued holiday after my mat leave. Can I therefore take this 28 days annual leave before my maternity leave??

I have found information saying I can do this but it was last revised on Dec 2008 so I'm not sure if things have changed since then.

Has anyone else taken all of their holiday entitlement before mat leave, even though it technically hasn't been accrued yet??


Thank you

 

[Mellage]

I managed to take the last few bits I had before I start my mat leave but im not sure if a company would let you take holiday before you have accrued it. Speak to your HR department, they may even let you carry some over to next year

 

[// arcadia]

Yes when your on maternity leave ur still an employee of that company and you must take ur holiday otherwise you will loose it.

 

[bunnyg82]

Yes! You are entitled to take it. Depending on your company you might be able to carry some over to the next year, for example, I am allowed to carry over up to 5 days. But if you are not allowed to carry any over and even if you don't want to then you should take them before you start maternity xx

 

[Kacie]

Thank you, I was hoping that was the case, otherwise i would be throwing away 4-5 weeks holiday.
it is a small company with no HR and I think they will argue to pay me as little as possible but as long as I'm within my rights to ask for it (or to carry it over) then that is ok.
I should also add that I'm not intending to go back after mat leave (if we can afford it), but I don't think that would make much difference to my entitlement.
xx

 

[babyblog]

Hiya, yes ypou have to take it before you go, otherwise you'll lose it. Yippee, only potential prob being that if you only took the 28 days prior to EDD and baby came early, mat leave starts automatically and you could lose your leave-does that make sense?

Ie my bubs is due 29th nov, i took two weeks leave 30th oct to 15th nov and then mat leave starts 16th nov.If baby arrived prior to 16th i would have lost any remaining holiday x

 

[Kacie]

Thank you for your answers everyone.. that's great news as it means a few extra weeks of getting everything ready.

Thankyou babyblog, I understand what you're saying. I guess that is just one of those things though.

Now I just need to wait for my scan to confirm the due date and everything and let work know.

 

[cb1]

Hi

I'm in a similar situation and spoke to my HR department the other day about holiday. Apparently if bubs comes early my company will pay the untaken holiday. Might be worth speaking to your boss to get an agreement on what will happen with your holiday.

The other thing I found out is that the company legally needs to give you 28 days (including BH's) my company gives more than this, but in the case of mat leave they drop it down to 28 days...

 

[mrsraggle]

Yep, I'm taking all of mine before finishing for mat leave at the end of March x

 

[Kacie]

Yep, I'm taking all of mine before finishing for mat leave at the end of March x

thank you, yes this is my intention as well to go on mat leave from the earliest I can (28th march) and take all 28 days (minus any already used) before this.

I don't want to tell employer until I have had my first scan which is two weeks away. But I want to make sure he has plenty of notice and can look up my maternity rights so he doesn't question my holiday allowance etc.

Also, 28 days hol will bring my leave forwad to start from end of feb so he will obviously need notice to recruit someone straight after christmas.

Sorry, am thinking outloud.. I just want to make sure that I am doing things properly in case my employer tries to argue it... I will be their first maternity case since they took over the business so not sure how they go about these things.

thank you again

xxx

 

[Foogirl]

As an employee on maternity leave you still accrue holidays over your time off so you are still entitled to your annual allowance of holidays. You should be allowed to add this to the beginning of your maternity leave, but this will be at the discretion of your employer as are all holidays. i.e they can refuse to give them to you at a certain time if your workload is such that they can't give you the time off. However, if they refuse, the should let you carry them over or pay you for them. I'd suggest approaching them with an open and flexible question rather than an "it's my right" approach. Only if they get sticky would I be looking at the letter of the law.

On the early delivery thing, it happened to me. I had agreed with my employer that I would take my holidays at the beginning of my leave then add on any from the following year that I had accrued, at the end. Over the period of 3 weeks this changed as complications set in and two days after we finally got it sorted, Abby was born 11 weeks early. They said no problem, they would pay me for the holidays at the end of the year so I'm looking forward to a nice christmas pay packet!

 

[BabyHaines]

hello honey, I am taking my full 4 weeks holiday entitlement before I go on maternity leave my section manager actually suggested that!!xx