accruing bank holidays on mat leave

[sayer82]

i'm a civil servant and work f/t mon-fri we our contract says we get 25 days annual leave plus the 8 bank holidays and the privilege days and our holidays run from Jan - dec
pregnancy policy states "your contractual rights and benefits, excluding pay are matained during the 52 weeks of maternity leave." and regarding leave it states
"You retain your contractual entitlement to annual leave as well as public and privilege holidays throughout the 52 weeks of your maternity leave."

If you work part-time or do not take your full 52 weeks maternity leave your contractual annual leave and public and privilege holiday entitlement for the period of your maternity leave will accrue on a pro rata basis.

you must take any unused accrued contractual annual leavebefore your maternity leave begins subject to the normal rules permitting carry over of annual leave from one year to another.In addition you may also take any annual leave you will accrue during maternity leave periodbefore your maternity leave starts.However if your maternity leave period will cross 2 leave years, you will only be allowed to take the leave you will accrue in the leave year in which your maternity leave starts before going on maternity leave.If your maternity leave continues into a new leave year and you have more than 9 days carry over leave as a result of annual leave accrued during maternity leave, you will be allowed to take this forward into the new leave year.Any accrue public and privilege holiday entitlement that you carry forward will be recordref offline.

Annua leave cannot be taken between OML and AML: however you may , with your units approval take the accrued annual leave and/or accrued public and privilege holiday entitlement at the end of your maternity leave and immediately before returning to duty."

i am due to start my mat leave on the 30th Jan and will probably take 39 weeks off as after this it is unpaid mat leave. i have asked if i accrue bank holidays and privilege days whilst i am off as this is how i am reading the above policy but my manager and her manager are stating that i dont. i went and had a word with my managers manager and he stated that it is sexest towards men and why should i get more leave then him while he is at work and i am on mat leave sitting at home doing NOTHING! was not impressed by that last comment but i wanted to get an offcial answer not just there opinion on the matter so i went to our union who contacted our HR dept who confirmed in an email that
"As discussed , i cn confirm an individual who is on mat leave does accrue P&P and full contractual holiday entiltlement during that mat leave period. additionally i can confirm that they can take this accrued leave/P&P leave in a lump after mat leave but before returning to work if the buisness can accomodate the request. If the business cannot accomodate the request then they will need to discuss how/when the accrued leave can be taken."
i showed this email to both managers who are still insisting i do not accrue bank holiday i rec'd a letter from the male manager which states
"You retain your entilement to annual leave and public ansd privilege days throughout your period of paid maternity leave.Annual leave and privilege days can be taken with prior agreement from your line manager, after your period of materniyu leave expired and before you return to work.
In addiotion to this you are entitled to public holidays whilst you are on paid leave.These days are taken and paid on the days they occu and cannot be accrued or taken at a later date."

to me this male manager is still trying to give his personal opinion and did not give any official reason or evidence to back up his opinion. also what he has stated in his letter goes against the policy as policy states i accrue Annual leave and both public and privilege days but he only states i accrue privilege days.

so i have now been to union again who are speaking to a senior manager (this male managers manager) to try and resolve this but i have said again i want to see evidence from HR not just an opinion.

what's everyone take on this am i right or are they?

sorry for the long post lol

jess

 

[Olive]

Hi,

It sounds pretty standard to me. For the time you're off, you'll be entitled to any of your annual leave entitlement for that period (for example, 14 days if you were off 6 months, as you'll still be getting the other 14 on your return to work) and any public holidays back that fall within your maternity leave. As you're going off in January, I'd imagine you'd want to take these at the end of your mat leave?

Your line manager shouldn't have said what he said, but it doesn't surprise me! Some of them are shocking!!

At the end of the day, your leave entitlement should be in line with the policy, if it's not then you can raise a grievance, but it could also be classed as sex discrimination so they need to be careful.

I would maybe forward HR's email on to your line manager, or ask him to put in writing what he has said to you so that you can forward it on to HR?

Good luck hun.

xxx

 

[hugsy]

I was only looking into this yesterday, bear in mind where I live had slightly different rules on some issues though

i was told by Industrial relations that because they allready give me 25 days holidays which is above and beyone statutory holidays that i wouldnt have any chance of getting paid for Bank Holidays even though it says in my contract I get 25 plus bank holidays, didnt quite understand her logic to be honest but she seemed pretty sure

But like Iv said that is just for where I am in d IOM

 

[lyndsey_28]

hey hun

as far as im aware you are still entitle to your holiday/bank holidys etc even when on maternity leave!! the company i work for holidays start the end of march and must be taken before the new enetitlement starts the following march as holidays not taken before this time will be lost! so when i went on maernity leave with my last baby i left work the beginning of feb and took 39 weeks paid and i was due back at work in the nov which ment my new entitiement had started but they coud not acommodate my hols during the nov/dec period as its one of the busiest periods of the year!! so took my hols in the jan after xmas and was still entitled to the full 6 weeks that everyone else had but just had them altogether

would deinately seek another opinion!! as i think ur entitled to them x

 

[sayer82]

i've just had a phone call and they are saying i'm already getting them off whilst on mat leave and that i'm only entitled to the 25 day annual leave (direct gov says statutory minimum paid leave is 28 days) but that means just because of when my mat leave starts i am getting less leave then to someone whos mat leave starts after all the bank hols example

Me starting mat leave end of Jan would be getting the 2nd of jan off as bank holiday and then starting mat leave at the end of Jan but missing out all the summer bank hols whilst on mat leave but having the 25 days annual leave also.
and
other person who starts the maternity leave after the summer gets all the banks holidays plus her 25 days annual leave plus all her mat leave.

i dont see how i'm getting the same contractual rights/benefits to the other lady also if they are not going to give me the bank holidays surely i am still alllowed another 3 days leave to make my leave from 25 to 28 which is the statutory minimum paid leave??

 

[Olive]

Stat minimum is 28 days taking into account your entitlement and public hols. They will take into account any hols you take/public hols before mat leave and after in the one leave year. Will you be back for xmas? Might be taking the 2 days in to account there as well?

If that's the case then there are 3 days to equal your 28.

I still think you should be getting back your public hols from when you're on mat leave though. It doesn't make sense.
xx

 

[VikkiR]

I work for the NHS and don't get the BHs back, just A/L xx