Hi Ladies,

I'm after someone in H.R who may be able to answer a question I have....

I am only 10 weeks pg but plan to go on maternity at 29 weeks the earliest I can which will be 16th May. I don't plan on returning to work afterwards so just want to utilise my time with my daughter before a baby invades her life! My question relates to holiday...I want to check all this out before I tell him I'm pregnant!

Our holiday runs Jan - Dec and I am entitled to 4 weeks holiday between now and end Dec. If I go on maternity in May my maternity leave wont end until I think Feb time so I obviously wont be able to use up my holiday before the end of the year so am I -legally' entitled to take it all before my maternity leave? I did this last time but I was at a different company then and im not sure if this was the law or them being nice and my employer this time round hasn't had anyone on maternity for several years so I will be expected to pretty much spoon feed him the right info! The company only has 6 employees and I am his PA, HR, Admin etc all rolled into one so its my job to find out!

I know that once I resign at the other end ill be entitled to holiday accrued from 1st Jan to finish date but its whether I can take all my holiday for 2011 before rather than after that I want to know. Would be nice to finish at 25 weeks....thats 15 weeks away!! ??????

Also what is the legal requirement on paying me for bank holidays? Again my last employer paid me for these at the end of my employment (didn't return after maternity leave) but was the the law or them being nice?

Thanks
Gemma

hey hun i'm not HR but i had lots of sickness problems in my pregnancy so got alot of contact with them over my rights.

personally my hols run from nov-end of oct. i used my 4 weeks of A/L from nov -dec and went on maternity from then. my company gives the bank holidays as extra days holiday so i then took 2 weeks off at the end of my maternity too.

if i were you i'd look at the directgov site for the basic legal requirements regarding hols and spoon feed him it in the way you want, if you're the one having to tell them!

as far as i'm aware you HAVE to accrue your hols as normal but its company discretion as to when you can use them i *think*

legally yes you have to get your holidays but be careful too as if you dont return they can 'claw back' some of your maternity pay, I think it is anything that they 'enhance' above government minimum.

When on mat pay you are considered to be an 'active employee' therefore reducing your holidays would be seen as an 'infringement' of your contract/reduction in your entitlement and also equal treatment of all so re your holidays you'll be fine. I had to take mine at the end of my maternity but I think it was more to do with being a teacher and ahving 11 weeks that would have accrued so for business purposes it was better for me to do it at the end any way (I worked up until week 39 as wanted more time off after as I will be going back to work) xx

hth xx

Thanks ladies. I did a bit of 'googling' and found this on the direct.gov website which is exactly what I was after! I needed it in black & white that I can use all my holiday up for that holiday year if it goes over two holiday years before maternity. Ill then get everything accrued in the 2nd holiday year at the other end! Woo hoo....14.5 weeks left at work!!

"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"

(oh and I dont get anything enhanced - just the bog standard SMP so I dont have that to worry about!)