Another Maternity / Bank Holiday question

beebuzz168

Hello helpful people

I've got a (hopefully) quick question to establish who is thinking right regarding my upcoming maternity leave. I'll try to cover all the information concisely.

I am due to go on maternity leave at the start of November, our company only offers the statutory minimum maternity pay. We are just trying to establish how much holiday I have left this year to carry over (year runs Jan - Dec).

I currently work 3.5days per week. Holiday for FT people is 23 days plus BH so I get 22.5 days this year.

They work out here how many BH I have used and deduct this from holiday entitlement at other times of the year. As I don't work Mondays I have only used 2 so far this year, leaving, I believe 20.5 days to be used, or carried over.

However, they are also including the 2 BH that I would use at Christmas and saying I only have 18.5 days to use.

My argument is that I won't be here to use those BH so I should be able to carry them over to next year.

Who is right?! Hope I've covered everything, but ask additional questions if you need to.

Thank you!

getmore4less

They should accrue, not count as being taken.

you need this sorting for the BH during maternity next year as well.

Recomended practice it to take all the accrued holiday during maternity before maternity not carry over.

Because you accrue during maternity if you take the full year you will have a lot of holidays to take next year after you return.

ktothema

Are you being paid anything on top of SMP by your company?

I'm just thinking about my old company. Myself and a colleague went on maternity around the same time (early December). I was full time, so got 30 days plus bank holidays (Jan-Dec). We both got a generous maternity package including a large amount of time full paid whilst on maternity. My friend was part time and didn't work mondays so we were both treated slightly differently. I was asked to use my 30 days up before maternity and bank holidays were accrued. My friend was given the option of using her holidays before but not being paid for the Christmas bank holidays that she'd normally work on, or leaving a day or so's leave left over so she would be paid this/these day/s.

Is this the case here?

If you're only getting SMP then of course this isn't relevant.

beebuzz168

Thanks for the advice.

I only get SMP this time around unfortunately (now I really appreciate that with my last pregnancy at a separate company, I got 18 weeks full pay!).

I know that taking all my leave this year would be ideal, but TBH I have too much work to do between now and then to use it all, and would rather have a weeks holiday at the end of my maternity if that makes sense using this years allowance.

They haven't ever had a part timer go on maternity leave before so I think that's where the confusion has arisen. Will see what they come back with after having done their research before I raise it again.