Annual Leave Accrual for Term Time Staff on Maternity Leave - General - HR in Schools and Academies

6 Annual Leave Accrual for Term Time Staff on Maternity Leave

2 Mar, 2023 15:26

Hi All,

I am wondering if people can share what they do in the following situation as it is currently being debated within the workplace, and there appears to be no standard approach to this across the board from what I have seen in other organisation’s policies.

The query relates to term time only staff and whether they accrue annual leave during a period of maternity leave, and if so how should this accrual of annual leave should be given i.e. a lump sum payment upon return to work, or physical time off. (i.e. paid for 39 weeks per year and a receive a payment for 7 weeks as part of monthly salary for annual leave so paid for a total of 46 weeks.)

There seems to be conflicting information out there on this topic, but the following appears to be most common.

Example 1

The salary calculation for support staff contracted to work term time only or term time plus additional working weeks, includes proportionate annual leave entitlement and there is no entitlement to annual leave except during school closure periods.

Your accrued annual leave entitlement will be offset by any period of school closure that occurs in the leave year before and after your maternity leave. Usually, there will be sufficient time within the school closure periods to accommodate the outstanding annual leave entitlement that you have accrued during the maternity leave period.

Example 2

If you are employed on a term-time only contract your entitlement to annual leave and bank holiday leave is incorporated into your pay. Throughout the period of your maternity leave, your entitlement to annual leave and bank holidays is as follows:

For the first 8 weeks of your maternity leave, if you are entitled to contractual maternity pay, you will not accrue paid leave as this is already included in your pay as part of your term-time only contract.
For the next 18 week period of your maternity leave you will accrue half of your annual leave and bank holiday entitlement. This is because you will receive half pay as part of your contractual maternity pay, which includes payment for your annual leave and bank holiday entitlement.
For the remaining 26 week period, you will accrue paid annual leave and bank holidays. This leave should be taken at the end of your maternity leave and can be taken during term time.

If you are entitled to statutory maternity pay only, you will accrue the following annual leave and bank holiday entitlement:

For the first 6 weeks of your maternity leave you will accrue 10% of your annual leave and bank holiday entitlement. This is because you will receive 90% of your pay, which includes payment for your annual leave and bank holiday entitlement.
For the remaining 46 week period, you will accrue paid annual leave and bank holidays. This leave should be taken at the end of your maternity leave and can be taken during term time.

To me example 1 doesn’t feel right as there are 6 weeks in the year that term time only staff do not receive salary for so being offset of any period of school closure would include unpaid weeks so therefore offsetting against weeks which are not paid for is not providing the staff member with the correct annual leave accrued during maternity leave unlike teachers who are paid for 52 weeks of the year.

Example 2 also does not feel right as staff who are all year round accrue annual leave at 100% of their salary during maternity leave and upon returning to work take the accrued annual leave at 100% of their salary.

It would be really interesting to see what everyone’s thoughts are on the above, and if anyone does anything differently or have a formula for calculating accrual of annual leave during maternity for term time only staff and willing share, it would be much appreciated.

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Kimberly | 0 Posts

2 Mar, 2023 16:03

Hi Charlotte

I think you're overcomplicating it and in your scenarios treating staff detrimentally due to being TTO.

TTO support staff are normally paid working weeks + holiday entitlement = paid weeks e.g. 39 working weeks + 4.5 weeks holiday entitlement = 43.5 paid weeks. The FTE salary is prorated based on the paid weeks, but is paid as 12 equal monthly payments regardless of when the school holidays fall.

Using my above scenario , if on ML for the whole year, the employee would have accrued the 4.5 weeks holiday entitlement. The time off can be offset in the 13 weeks school holidays, however, you will need to pay for these weeks at the normal pay rate. We have committed to paying support staff a lump sum when they return to work.

Teachers are paid for 52 weeks - if you've kept their holiday entitlement to 5.6 weeks the time can be offset in the school holidays and as they are already being paid there is no need to make additional payment for the accrued holiday.

I do hope that helps!
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Charlotte | 0 Posts

2 Mar, 2023 16:18

In reply to Kimberly:
Thanks for your response
I think because there does not be standard approach across the board on this (the examples given are actual examples I've found from other organisations) and that some organisations I've spoken to say they do nothing at all. We are just trying to find the best approach to this. It is easier if the employee is off for the full year, but if they are off for part year there is the possibility that some staff may have been over paid or under paid for the period of time in work before / after maternity leave because of how salary is divided equally over 12 months.
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Kimberly | 0 Posts

3 Mar, 2023 08:40

In reply to Charlotte:
What I have found from talking to other schools is TTO staff are not being given the holiday leave/pay they are entitled to, and it baffles me how the unions have even allowed it to carry on tbh.

If they are off for part of the year, you have to pro rata the holiday entitlement as you would a full time employee - you look at the number of working weeks taken off in the ML period, divide this by the full working weeks in the year and then multiply this by the holiday entitlement e.g. if the employee takes 6 months off but in that period the working weeks would have been 20, you do 20 / 38 x 4.5 = 2.37 weeks holiday entitlement due.

The issues around splitting salary across 12 equal payments is a lot more complicated with pay rises, term dates, banked pay etc, however, has minimal impact on calculating correct holiday pay for those on ML.
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Nina Waters | 0 Posts

3 Mar, 2023 14:54

In most instances, there will be time in the leave year for TTO staff to receive their statutory entitlement to paid holiday. The times when I've needed to pay in addition is usually where someone goes on mat leave mid year and doesn't return. For the first year, there's usually been sufficient time for the statutory entitlement for the year to have been taken. In the second annual leave year, there hasn't been any opportunity to take leave, so they are due a pro rata entitlement of the stat leave for the untaken holiday.

All further complicated now with staff who are taking shared parental leave in order to return to full pay in the holiday periods ...
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Ian | 0 Posts

3 Mar, 2023 17:07

In reply to Kimberly:
And remember to take into account

www.supremecourt.uk/.../uksc-2019-0209-judgment.pdf
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Kimberly | 0 Posts

6 Mar, 2023 14:09

In reply to Ian:

The government has gone to consultation on this to see if it should be applied to TTO/part year workers - we are awaiting the outcome.
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