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