Holiday entitlement

Employees on Maternity, Adoption, Ordinary or Additional Paternity Leave accrue holiday (both statutory and contractual, including any contractual right to paid bank holidays) during that leave. Since they cannot take holiday during the leave period, they often build up large amounts of holiday to take at the end. Adding holiday at the end is a good way of extending the amount of time spent at home, once the right to paid leave has run out.

If an employee is unable, because of the timing of the holiday year, to use up their annual leave before starting Maternity or Adoption Leave, they must be allowed to carry that unused holiday over to take after the Maternity or Adoption Leave has ended (Gomez v Continental Industries del Caucho [2004] IRLR 407). This is the case even if the contract of employment says that an employee will forfeit holiday unused at the end of the holiday year.

An employee who returns to work part-time having worked full-time before maternity leave will accrue annual leave during Maternity Leave on a full-time basis. She must be allowed to take the whole amount of that leave, even though she returns on reduced hours.