Calling HR bods (Olive and Pos you know I'm talking about you).

[NinjaKitty]

Hiiiii HR ladies I need you!

Thanks to the fact that there is no HR function in my company I need advice quite urgently about holidays accrued whilst on Mat leave. Specifically accruing bank holidays.

Basically I have been given a formal letter laying out my mat leave, entitlements and possible return to work dates. The return to work dates have also been calculated taking into account the amount of holiday I have accrued during my mat leave. However I'm pretty sure they've stiffed me on the bank holidays.

As I understand it by law when you work full time you are entitled to a minimum of 5.6 weeks of holiday per year. This equates to 28 days. These days can be made up of contractual hoilday entitlement + the 8 days yearly bank holidays.

My contract states that I have 25 days holiday to take when I want and I also get the bank holidays off with pay. As I understand it if your contract states that you get bank holidays off as paid leave then I am entitled to accrue the bank holidays as well as my normal leave when I am off during Mat leave. Their calculations have worked out my holiday entitlement accrued during mat leave based on the 25 days (incidently which falls short of the minimum by law).

I just want to get my facts straight before I raise this to the lady who does HR who is also a director/owner of the company. I have tried to find a link to a web site where this is laid out but failed (I'm sure I've found one in the past). So if anyone has a link I could you (preferable a .gov one) that would be great.

 

[Princess81]

Our bank holidays accrue in addition to our leave. I'm not sure of the legalities of it so one of the experts will have to help you there I can tell you though that if there was a way to screw us over on it my work would know lol x

 

[Olive]

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Parents...amilies/Pregnancyandmaternityrights/DG_175088


Holiday entitlement

You build up all your entitlements to paid holiday through all of your Statutory Maternity Leave. This is even if your employment contract says you are entitled to more than the statutory minimum.
You can add holiday to the beginning or end of your Statutory Maternity Leave. You may not be able to carry over untaken holiday entitlement if your Statutory Maternity Leave goes over two holiday years. It is often best to take this at the beginning of your Statutory Maternity Leave.


Hey hun,

Copied the above for you. Re public hols, I'm not sure :/ maternity isn't my area unfortunately. Pos will know, she's better than me! At my work, we get public hols back and full annual leave entitlement. Without a doubt, you'll be, at the very minimum, entitled to 28 days (when off sick this figure can include public hols taken/to be taken, but not sure about when on mat). God I'm rubbish! Lol.

xxx

 

[positivity :)]

Hey! Yep as above, ur entitled to ur contractural annual leave, in ur case 25 days plus bank holidays. Ladies remember next year there is 9 bank holidays (queens jubilee??) so u are entitled to all of that. Il send u a link tomoz as I'm on my iPhone at the mo. Xx

 

[NinjaKitty]

Thanks guys. I'm gonna raise it today. I'll let you know if I walk away with my P45

I am also going to ask if they'll consider joining a childcare voucher scheme. I'm just out to make myself unpopular I guess.

 

[pinkyprincess]

I've been told that I'm being paid (with my mat pay) for the ones in the year, but because I'm taking holiday over Christmas I'll get them back?

 

[positivity :)]

Ninja if u request the childcare vouchers then they Must do it. We will be about £140 per mth better off thru them as both mine and OH's employer offers them. Get on the case!

Xx

 

[NinjaKitty]

Well I sent this e-mail:

Firstly I have a query regarding the letter laying out my Maternity Leave and potential return to work dates which was included in the October 2011 pay slip. The letter says that I will accrue 11.5 days paid holiday leave entitlement until 20/12/2012. From what I can gather this is based about my 25 days (full time) holiday entitlement as per my contract.

However the statutory minimum holiday is now 5.6 weeks per year which equates to 28 days per year.

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Employment/Employees/Timeoffandholidays/DG_10029788

As per the above link I believe the 28 days holiday entitlement can include paid leave for public holidays which I don’t think have been taken into account when working out the holidays accrued during my Maternity Leave.

I also believe that I am entitled to benefit from all my normal terms and conditions of employment during Maternity Leave. My contract says I am entitled to paid leave plus any Public Holidays which fall within the each 12 month period. So based on this I should also be accruing paid holiday for the 9 Public holidays which fall within this time period.

I have checked this out on the Business Link website which says along the lines of that I should continue to accrue both statutory and contractual paid holiday during both ordinary and additional maternity leave.

http://www.businesslink.gov.uk/bdotg/action/detail?itemId=1081597918&type=RESOURCES

I would be grateful if you could get this checked out as it would make a significant difference to my paid holiday accrued during my Maternity Leave.


Secondly, I was wondering if the company has considered or would consider running a childcare voucher scheme? From what I can gather there are various companies and charities which can help the company with access to these schemes. I’m sure you already know that this would mean I could opt to have part of my wage per week as childcare vouchers for use at registered childcare providers. I believe that you can have up to £55 per week as childcare vouchers and receive tax breaks in return. It could make as much as £1000 difference a year to the money I receive which obviously would be a massive help.

I had a reply saying that she has forwarded my query to the accountants who work this stuff out for the company. BUT by her layman calculations she thinks the figures are correct but she also has stated that the holidays have been pro rata'd from mid July (when my holiday year starts) to when I am due to return to work at the latest date. I am waiting for the accountants to come back with an answer before I point out that they have not taken into account the bank holidays which fall between when I start mat leave in december and when my current holiday year ends in july.

Also the reply for the childcare vouchers is not so good:

[FONT="]I have in fact in the past looked into the scheme and have found that these companies are reluctant to take on a company who request just 1 or 2 employees on the scheme, it’s just not worth their while. However things may have changed so I’ll see what they come back with. You’ll get an idea of the size of the companies they deal with from their websites.[/FONT]

[FONT="]The set up/maintenance fees used to be high, so again that would be a factor to the company, and they always involved a salary sacrifice, so again – let’s wait and see[/FONT]

Ho hum looks like I have a bit of a fight on my hands. I don't think she's taken into account that company also gets tax breaks for allowing childcare vouchers. From what I've read these more than make up for the admin fees charged by companies or charities which run the schemes.

Anyone feel free to comment if you have any more ideas. I'll post what the results are when I know.