*MAD* maternity leave annoyance

So, came into work this morning, very excited that I have three more days of work before maternity leave. Check my emails and find one from the payroll girl saying that I am unable to take my paid maternity leave until I use up all of my annual leave *WTF*!

She says this is stated in the policy - which I have read a few times. Looked again and still can't find any reference. Have emailed her back this morning to ask where exactly is that written. I have over three weeks of annual leave owing to me, and had I known this, I would have taken my annual leave for the last three weeks, before commencing my mat leave.

I have just had a response back saying that it is covered by their leave without pay procedure. I am absolutely fuming. Leave without pay is a totally different category.

This job gives me the ***** at the best of times and now this. They have the crappiest mat leave policy of any employer I have worked with and this just tops it.

I am now going to get someone else here to check whether they agree with her. If they do, I will change my leave and have three weeks annual leave starting now, and get my mat leave started later, so that at least I get my full entitlement. Would have much preferred using my annual leave for something like hmmm.... a holiday??

It really makes me feel fantastic about coming back to this place in a years time. As if I didn't already hate the place.

oh thats terrible!!!

my company is bad too, we have no such thing as paid maternity leave either.

On the happy side, YAY YOU GET 12months off!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That is a very odd policy and I've never heard of having to use up all your annual leave before you could access your paid maternity leave. I would have that checked for sure. I do know that alot of people put their annual leave onto the end of the paid maternity leave so that they have money coming in for a bit longer, but to have to take it beforehand is odd.

Good luck and I hope you have someone in the HR dept who can look at it for you

It is the same at my work.

My work was the same, in so far as IF you wanted to take AL and paid ML together you had to take the annual first.

But they shouldnt be able to force you to take annual leave if you dont want to? Or have I misinterpreted your post.

Be careful: if you take annual leave first and do t go back to work before ML starts, they can use the first day of your annual leave as the date to qualify for mat leave if that makes sense?

So if you needed 12 month service to qualify for mat leave and were cutting it fine, your Annual leave AND you mat leave BOTH have to start after the 12 months

Call the Ombudsman for workplaces - I can't remember his exact title but there is someone who takes care of workplace agreements to make sure that they are fair and everyone is getting a fair deal. They will be able to tell you what your entitlements are and if you have a case, fight for your rights.

It completely sucks that they are only mentioning this now ... even on that fact alone it is so wrong. If they have policies like that, they should have been upfront when you were arranging your leave. Telling you days before you take your leave after everything else has been sorted is wrong.

Hope you can get it sorted.

Fair work Australia

Is any of the ML paid? If it's all unpaid, then I can't see how they could force you to take your paid leave. If there is a paid ML entitlement, then I can see where that would come into it.

An extra few weeks of pay isn't all bad, but I'm hoping they aren't pulling a shonky here. All women are entitled to 12 months unpaid and I can't see that they can force you to take your paid leave before giving you access to the 12 mths. :crossfingers: that's the case if you want to keep your leave. Let us know how you go. And that short notice is very unprofessional. Ask them to forward you in writing the policy that states you need to take the paid leave so that you can pass that on. I'd also ask to speak to the boss of the person who told you, they might just be confused or could at least explain it better for you.

Fair Work Assist Resource Centre

The policy here states the unpaid maternity leave must be taken no earlier than six weeks before the date of your baby's birth and no later than the date of birth. So I can't see how an employer could insist you take annual leave first and still satisfy the law. Some employers give annual leave at the end of the maternity leave component, if a mother wishes to extend her time off, but insisting on it before could mean they are breaking the law. Imagine if you gave birth a couple of weeks early and they still had you on annual leave? You wouldn't be taking your maternity leave as the law stipulates.

I think they can legally require you to only take 12 months, they don't have to allow you to use your annual leave after your maternity leave, but that would be the only thing I could think of.

Update: I read the Fair Work stuff and it seems for pre-adoption leave they can require you to use annual leave. That's the only comment on annual leave that relates to maternity leave on the website.

Thanks for your help, ladies.

I am very annoyed - and getting more so as the morning goes on! Mainly because they didn't make it clear originally - I would have had no problem in taking the leave, had I had enough notice.

I do get paid (3 weeks now and 3 weeks once I have been back for 3 months!), so I'm not sure where I stand legally with that.

I have now spoken with an HR manager, who assures me this is company policy. I have let her know that I am not happy with not being informed and it not being clear in the documentation, so I would like my leave accrual to remain. I am waiting on her to get back to me on this. If I don't get a satisfactory answer, I will take it further.

I had come in this morning with the intention to hand things over nicely, as complete as possible, the way I have always left things when I leave from work, but this crap is making me feel like, why should I bother. May as well just do what everyone else does and leave it a mess for others to sort out. Lack of respect for me, means I have no respect for this place. Am even considering whether I bother coming in the next two days or just take that annual leave that I am owed.

:hug: Why does mat leave always have to be so bl**dy complicated??

Because men don't get pregnant, so it's not worth investing time and money to make it right.

OK enough of cynical me. As you can tell I'm in a bad mood at the moment.