Annual Leave & Mat Leave

He cannot decline your AL. Whatever AL you have left for 2024 you are entitled to take in 2024. So before your Mat leave starts. Some employers allow to carry it to 2025 but that is employee's choice, not the employer. So tell them or contact HR X

I’m taking 5 weeks holiday in one go so i’m leaving August 2nd but my mat leave will officially start when I’m 35 weeks x

@Gabi do you know what law / section there is to back this up? I’ve had endless problems with him as a manager during my pregnancy so if this is the case, I will insist on the AL and go through HR. But the holiday year for us is April-March so that might mean he can refuse my AL. I wanted to take it all before I go on Mat leave because I’m not planning to return to this job (won’t tell them that until next year)

@Libby that will be a lovely summer and plenty of nesting time 😃 xx

Yes most definitely!! So looking forward to it❤️ xx

Do you have your maternity policy to hand? Usually it will state whether you ideally need to take annual leave prior to your maternity starting - majority employers do this. Otherwise they need to allow you to carry over to the next financial year - I’d just go straight to HR personally x

My holiday year is from April to March also and I am taking 30 days holidays 6 weeks before my Mat leave starts as I had 5 days carried over from last year. I don’t know which law is applied to this but your HR should be able to assist. You manager can refuse to give you the annual leave spread out separately however cannot refuse to give you all at once before your mat leave kicks is

Defo go to HR and if you’re manager still give you more head ache I would even open a grievance case against him/her you have rights xx

You can carry your annual leave over to the end of your mat leave. If it were me I would take the mat leave early and then carry the annual leave over to come back on the same date as originally planned. if you were to go off sick or into labour your mat leave would automatically start.

Do it the other way around. Start your maternity leave and add your annual leave until the end of your maternity

That is what I am doing

In a lot of places as well. You can also add next year's leave on to the end of your maternity

Technically they don’t have to approve AL but legally they do have to let you roll it over to next year (I work in HR). So I would start your mat leave early (they can’t legally refuse that) and add all your annual leave to the end of your mat leave next year

Maternity Action . org . uk is the website I recommend to everyone! It got all info re pregnancy including resigning before mat leave, resigning while on mat meave, entitlements, holidays, rights etc Xx

Iv had mine declined too due to staffing levels I had 2 weeks to take but our policy says to try take it before go off but if not possible it will be put at the end of my maternity leave so Iv had to settle for that. Don’t know if they hoped I would work the 2 weeks I requested but Iv told them I’m still finishing same day I will be 35+4 I have pgp and already struggling with stairs at work

Yeah they have to let you roll it over legally - remember to roll over any bank holidays etc that happen while you’re on maternity leave too!

I’m technically leaving for mat leave at 31 weeks but taking two weeks before this (starts Monday)… I can’t imagine your boss declining your al if you let them know you’ll struggle working full time… but I do agree with other comments go on leave early add your hols onto the end of your mat leave…

https://www.acas.org.uk/your-maternity-leave-pay-and-other-rights/holiday-and-maternity-leave, there are lots of websites that mention annual leave during maternity I believe the gov website does too! While you are on ML you are still employed by them so you will need to either take your holiday before including bank holidays then anything you accrue in the new holiday year you can also use to extend your ML and any new bank holidays you didn’t use during ML. For me I am due 4th October - starting maternity 30th sep - using my AL that’s left this year up to the 16th Sep- and due to December BH I have to use 3 before maternity so I have used 2 to finish even earlier then 16th and 1 in August! (For some reason they counted New year day as this year) then once my new holiday calendar starts I will gain all my holidays again and be able to use those bank holidays between 2nd Jan - June/July (depending when I’m back at work).

Even though my manager has been great I have still carried out the process of me leaving and any information I need or they need like the MATB1 with HR! I would just speak to them and see if they can take over you leaving for ML rather than your manager it will make everything smoother and make you less anxious that he’s being a dick! But he does not have the right to refuse your AL before ML especially with it being 2 months before your due date! unless he wants you to have loads once you return ! Remember even if you decide to leave you still have holidays from the new holiday year and those bank holidays plus you can leave with the same notice and never return to work ever but you would have to hand it in the notice with the same time during maternity leave and then you could either have your holidays paid out in payslip at the end of your employment or also use them up!

Thank you so much everyone ❤️

@Gemma Hello, I hope you don’t mind me asking as you work in HR. My manager had still said I still can’t be told my pay entitlement (whether I qualify for statutory mat pay or enhanced mat pay) until I’ve submitted my maternity plan which commits to my start and end date of maternity leave. I verbally said I couldn’t tell them yet when I’d return to work because that depends on finances based on the eligibility from my work. The maternity policy isn’t clear as it seems to be based on previous contracts so it’s not something I can work out myself. Is this right? I thought they would have to be transparent of what money I would receive? Thanks in advance if you can help with this x