maternity leave & holiday entitlement

sparkle83

I hope this is in the right place.

Our holiday period runs jan 1st to dec 31st. I work part time and accrue 16hours (my normal week) every three months. Last year I supposedly took 6 hours more than I was entitled to. This was carried over to this year. I booked all my holiday this year without knowing about the deficit, so will still be minus 6 hours going into 2012.

However, I am now pregnant and expect to go on maternity leave, with my last day being Dec 31st.

I know I accrue some holiday time whilst on mat leave, but what I don't know if how much I'll accrue, and whether this will be offset against my 6 hours owing?

Also, do I accrue holiday during the whole 52 weeks?

And as I don't intend to return after mat leave, what happens to the rest of the holiday hours I accrue? Is it lost, or do they have to pay it to me when I leave?

Thanks for any help

sparkle83

I've already booked it all and have plans for that time, so have nothing left over as I was only told about the deficit two weeks ago.

Savvy_Sue

You say 'supposedly', have you checked their figures and asked for an explanation of how it happened?

sparkle83

googlewhacker: I have plans for those days, and I can't do any overtime hours on the days I am there because head office wont give us any overtime for anything.

Sue: My manager has tried asking them, but they just say 'it's correct' and don't explain it. It was a previous manager that authorised all this holiday without telling me that I owed some.

I've looked at my contract, and am now wondering why on earth I only get 4 weeks paid holiday, and not the 5.6 weeks the direct gov site says is mandatory. Also, there is nothing in it about carrying forward holiday hours or holiday owed, everything refers you to the employee handbook which I was supposed to get with my contract but I've been there 15 months, and everytime I've asked, head office say they are in the middle of rewriting it and will send it out when its ready :S

Savvy_Sue

Can you tell us how many hours a f/t person works, and how much leave a full-timer would have?

And do you work regular hours adding up to 16, if so over how many days?

And do you normally work Mondays, and if so do you work Bank Holidays or is your workplace closed?

Or use the businesslink calculator to see how much you should be entitled to. On the face of it, 16 x 4 isn't enough leave: I get 89.4 hours but that MAY be affected if you never have to work BHs but they often fall on one of your working days.

And if you still have a discrepancy, I wouldn't normally recommend this, but you're going on maternity and don't intend to come back (although I might not tell them that!), so what have you got to lose?

Raise a grievance, NOT against your manager but against HR.

This is a very rough draft ... others may improve this and you need to amend it eg if you don't have good records of what you took last year.

Dear HR person

I wish to raise a grievance about the difficulty I have had with my annual leave calculations.

I have been advised that I accrue 16 hours pw over 3 months. However, for a full year I believe this should be 89.4 hours (Businesslink calculator, based on 5.6 weeks minimum statutory entitlement). [If you think that the full-timers get MORE than 5.6 weeks, that would be too low!]

In addition to this, in 2010 I booked X hours in total, and these holidays were agreed and signed off by my line manager, Fred Bloggs. At the start of 2011 I booked all the leave I was entitled to, but have now been informed by my current line manager Freda Bloggs that I took 6 hours too much in 2010. Despite several requests neither Freda nor I have been given an explanation of how this calculation was arrived at.

I am unable to work this time back, but more importantly I do not feel it is reasonable to require me to do so, for the following reasons:

1. Without being given an explanation of how my leave for 2010 was calculated, I do not accept that I booked too much: indeed I believe I was not given my statutory entitlement and should have had Y hours.

2. Even if I did book too much leave, my line manager signed it off and I took this leave in good faith, it is therefore not reasonable to deduct 6 hours from this year's leave entitlement.

3. It would be unlawful to deduct 6 hours from this year's leave entitlement because this would take me below the statutory minimum entitlement. [that one's a bit of a clincher, IMO, but I may not have worded it very well because it's only just crossed my mind!]

4. You do not appear to be giving me my statutory minimum of 5.6 weeks leave entitlement in any case.

I look forward to your response.

Yours sincerely

sparkle

Savvy_Sue

Been looking at your posts again: the 4 weeks is OK IF you are ALSO paid for ALL bank holidays, because 5.6 weeks is 4 'normal' weeks plus 8 BHs for someone working 5 days pw.

Also an employer doesn't have to allow leave to be carried forward, BUT can only allow it to be carried forward if they are giving MORE than the statutory minimum. So my employer gives 33 days to those working 5 days pw, which means that they can allow us to c/f up to 5 days, but no more than that.

paddedjohn

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

Been looking at your posts again: the 4 weeks is OK IF you are ALSO paid for ALL bank holidays, because 5.6 weeks is 4 'normal' weeks plus 8 BHs for someone working 5 days pw.

Also an employer doesn't have to allow leave to be carried forward, BUT can only allow it to be carried forward if they are giving MORE than the statutory minimum. So my employer gives 33 days to those working 5 days pw, which means that they can allow us to c/f up to 5 days, but no more than that.

Sorry this is wrong.
You must take at least 4 weeks of your minimum entitlement and,if untaken and if your employer allows, you can carry over the remaining 1.6 weeks to the next leave year.
In the above example, SAVVY-SUE'S employer can allow her to carry forward up to 13 days, not 5.

paddedjohn

Just to add op, re the 6 hours you 'owe', you dont owe them yet as you havnt had this years holidays yet and your employer may if they wish with the correct notice, just cancel 6 hours that you have booked to take. You cant owe them if you havnt taken them.

Sambucus_Nigra

sparkle83 wrote: »

I've already booked it all and have plans for that time, so have nothing left over as I was only told about the deficit two weeks ago.

Dear HR.

As I have booked all my leave for this year, would it be possible to have the 6 hours taken out of the holiday I will accrue over my maternity leave. Many Thanks Spark.

getmore4less

There are a few issues here but easiest to start with is the holidays accrueing during maternaty.

The recomendation is that this holiday is brought forward and taken before maternity which would solve the carry over issue and the fact you might not return to be able to take it after

Issue becomes if you are sick and then can't take the holiday.


The other issue is your actual allowance but that need clarification of the full timers holidays and how any holidays you get relating to BH.


I would not raise it a grievence untill you clarify how they calculate the holiday and if you disagee give them an opportunity to fix it.

sparkle83

Can you tell us how many hours a f/t person works, and how much leave a full-timer would have? They work a 39 hour wk, and also get 4 weeks at 39 hours.

And do you work regular hours adding up to 16, if so over how many days? It varies as it is retail, so shift patterns are irregular, but they have just set me to 4 days a week of 4 hours a day. I always do a minimum of 16 hours.

And do you normally work Mondays, and if so do you work Bank Holidays or is your workplace closed? More often than not, yes I work mondays. Bank holidays we are expected to work (except xmas day which we close for), and earn standard hourly rate.

I won't be able to take my maternity holiday entitlement unless I book 4 weeks leave from jan 1st-28th, and then go on mat leave on 29th as the new hol year starts jan 1st.

Thanks for all your input, it's very helpful!