Holidays

[Bloom]

Could someone tell me if you still get holiday pay if you are on maternity leave? I work in a very small office and my boss is clueless hes leaving it to me to find out what im allowed.

My babys due in April and my holiday runs from Jan to Dec i get 4 weeks. So am i entitled to any holiday if im only going be there for 1/4 of the year. I thought you had to earn your holiday but as im still an employee im confused. If i do get holiday i will take it before babys born.

 

[hotluck]

My boss tried to tell me yesterday that because I'm off for 8 months next year on maternity leave that I will only be entitled to pro-rata of my holidays. My friend found me this link yesterday (click on the maternity one) which says your holidays accrue as normal while you are on maternity. Shoved it in my boss's face last night just before I left.

 

[Emmylou]

You are still entitled to holiday acrrual the same as if you were working in the office, even though you are on maternity leave. So provided you actually 'go back to work' and are employed for the full 12 months next year, then you are still entitled to 4 weeks holiday.

A good tip is to take at least one of those weeks at the end of your maternity leave, so that although you don't go back into the office when your maternity leave runs out, it does count as you going back to work (a loophole!) so if you get more than SMP on the condition that you 'return to work' then you have technically returned to work even if you then choose to hand in notice so that you don't return to work. Hope that makes sense.

 

[tuck]

This is quite a good site, you can only take, prior, to your maternity leave any holidays from the current leave year, if you are still on maternity leave during your next leave year then you can take the new accrued leave at the end of any maternity leave, if you are returning to work then you may want to think about taking ALL your leave from the following year else you'll have none left, depending when you return to work in your leave year.
http://www.dti.gov.uk/employment/employ ... 34244.html

 

[Bloom]

Thanks for the replies ladies

 

[Bloom]

I need your help again ladies.

If my holiday year runs from Jan - Dec and i will be leaving around March/April time and having the full 39 weeks off on SMP i will not be expected to return till after xmas 2008 (a new holiday year) how much holiday can i take before my ML starts?

Although i get 4 weeks spread over the year i would of only worked the first 1/4 of the year (so therfore only entitled to a 1/4 of my holiday at that time) but by the time my ML runs out i will be in a new holiday year (2009) so i will lose any entitlement from 2008.

Im really struggling to understand i really need to know what im allowed and i need to be able to back it up as i dont want to lose out on my holiday pay if im entitled to it.

 

[purple13]

i think it actually depends on the company you work for hon - it may be that your company will let you take all of your hols for the year at the start of your maternity leave - i think they have to do this if they're not going to let you carry it over. (bear in mind that legally, if you have the baby whilst you're still on holiday, your maternity leave will kick in immediately and you'll have to work out what to do with any remaining holiday days)

my company have let me put all of my holiday days from 2008 onto the end of my maternity leave in 2009 - so i'm extending my leave by an extra 25 days. i'll then also get the 6 bank holidays that i'll accrue whilst on basic smp/no pay. which means that my 12 month maternity leave becomes 14 months...!!

if your boss is that clueless, i would work out what you want to do with your holiday days and present him with what you feel is reasonable. see what he says?

 

[Bloom]

Thanks Purple you can tell im very confused about this whole process ive decided to leave earlier and fit it all in to 2008 as i probaly wont go back anyway ive requested to have 2 weeks before ML and 2 weeks after so there should be no problems with accuring the holiday.

Can someone just confirm that you still accur holiday for the full 39 weeks of SMP and not just part of it.

Thanks ladies

 

[purple13]

its really complicated

yup, you still accrue annual leave during all of your 39 weeks.

at my company, i also accrue bank holidays but only when i'm on basic SMP or no pay.