Holiday entitlement during leave



Employees on maternity, adoption, ordinary or shared parental leave accrue holiday — both statutory and contractual — during their leave. Since they cannot take holiday while on leave, they often build up large amounts of holiday to take at the end. Taking paid holiday can be a good way of extending the amount of time spent at home once the statutory right to pay has run out. 



If an employee is unable, because of the timing of their holiday year, to use up their statutory annual leave before going on maternity or adoption leave, they must be allowed to carry it 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 any holiday unused at the end of the holiday year. 



Acas says that in the case of shared parental leave, employees should try to take their annual leave within their leave year wherever possible, but that where this is not possible “it would be good practice for an employer to allow it to be carried over”.



An employee who returns to work part-time having worked full-time before going on leave will accrue annual leave during their leave period on a full-time basis, and must be allowed to use up the whole amount of that leave when he or she returns, even though they come back to work on reduced hours.