Navigating Compensatory Leave: Should Sunday Be Counted as Leave or Holiday?

Compensatory Leave Query

My name is Varaprasad, and I am working as an HR Executive. I came across a situation where we had to work on a Sunday due to our annual meet. On that day, our management informed me that we would be provided with a compensatory leave. One of our employees took leave from Saturday to Wednesday and requested to consider Saturday as compensatory leave. Now, my question is, should we consider Sunday as a leave or a holiday? Please help me with this.

Thank you.

Regards

In this case, Sunday is treated as leave only. For availing Sunday as a holiday, an employee should work on Saturday or Monday.

Regards,
Ramesh Rao
HR-SPML

I understand in your case the regular weekly off is on Sunday. If yes, did the said employee work on Sunday? If yes, have you agreed to provide him one Compensatory Off (CO) in lieu of the Sunday he worked? If yes, does your leave policy allow a combination of Casual Leave (CL)/Sick Leave (SL)/Paid Leave (PL) with Compensatory Off (CO)? If yes, does your leave policy allow leave other than Casual Leave (CL)? If not, consider the Weekly Off (WO) as leave if it falls between the absent days. If yes, he can be given Saturday as Compensatory Off (CO) and Sunday as Weekly Off (WO), and he will only have to apply for three days (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday) of leave. Normally, in the case of Casual Leave (CL), the day off in between is not counted as leave.

Regards,
Shailesh Parikh
Vadodara, Gujarat
[Phone Number Removed For Privacy Reasons]

In this case, Saturday should be treated as a compensatory off, and Sunday should be treated as such. From Monday to Wednesday, he will be entitled to leave. Last but not least, leave should always be granted against working days, not against weekends and holidays.

Thanks & Regards,

Sumit Kumar Saxena

From the facts you have stated, it may be inferred that you have a 6-day week pattern and, as a special case, you all worked on Sunday, which is supposed to be the weekly day of rest. If so, the benefit of Compensatory Off will only be available to those who actually worked on Sunday. For employees other than those who attended the annual meet, Sunday will be treated as the weekly rest day only.

Regards

If any holiday gets "sandwiched" between your leave period, it would be treated as a part of your leave, whether it is a Weekly Off or any other holiday.

If the holiday is prefixed or suffixed to your leave period, it will remain as a holiday.

Well, in any case, if an employee needs to work on Sunday, which is actually a weekly off day, the employee should have the option to go for compensatory leave. Ensure there is a single line break between paragraphs.

I understand from your statement that your management decided to grant one day of compensatory off to those who attended the annual meeting on Sunday, which was the weekly off day, treating it as a working day. Alternatively, it was a simple alternate day for the weekly off. If it was considered a working day attending the meeting, the employee shall be entitled to overtime in addition to compensatory off.

Understanding Compensatory Off (COFF)

COFF is not a leave in actuality. It is time off provided in lieu of working on a weekly off. This means COFF is an adjusted weekly off, compensating for working on the regular weekly off day. Therefore, you are giving the employee an adjusted weekly off against their regular off on Sunday.

The employee receives their adjusted weekly off on Saturday (COFF) and their actual weekly off on Sunday, so their official leave commences on Monday. Consequently, Sunday is not counted as part of their leave period.

This is called the sandwich rule of leave. There is no legal provision governing this, so it all depends upon the policy of the company.

In my opinion, if you do not have anything written on the same in your policies, you should not club it. That will be deemed detrimental to the interest of the employee. Before implementing anything or any rule that may be considered detrimental to the interest of the employee, you will have to serve notice as per the requirement of Section 9A of the Industrial Disputes Act.

Also, it is a comp off. If an employee worked on a weekly off, it means they worked for around 13 days without a leave. Now, let them enjoy and have fun for a couple of days. Be a good HR and be supportive to employees.

Please formulate the leave policy, procedure, process, workflow, and templates.

Compensatory Leave Policy

A simple solution can be:

If an employee is required to perform duties on a Saturday/Sunday or on a closed holiday, they may be given compensatory leave for a corresponding number of days, provided that he/she will not be entitled to draw any overtime allowance admissible to him/her for those days. Furthermore, compensatory leave shall not be accumulated by an employee for more than three days.

Thanks

Compensatory Off and Weekly Off Regulations

As per the Factories Act, if an employee needs to work on a weekly off, they should be given one compensatory off. An employee should not work for more than ten days without an off.

Understanding the Rule of Sandwich

Regarding the practice of compensatory off, if it coincides with a weekly off and another leave, then the weekly off does not lapse. This "rule of sandwich" applies only in the case of PL (Privilege Leave), CL (Casual Leave), and LWP (Leave Without Pay) but not for compensatory off (Coff).

For example, if an employee takes Coff on Saturday, Sunday is the weekly off, and Monday is PL, then the weekly off does not lapse. However, if Saturday is PL, Sunday is the weekly off, and Monday is PL, then the weekly off should be considered as PL.

If Saturday is a compensatory off day, then Sunday will also be an off day. If Saturday is taken as leave, then Sunday will be counted as part of the leave.

Regards,
Rajeev

Sunday, in this case, will be considered as a weekly off and not a leave. Sunday would have been considered as leave only in the case where your company followed the Sandwich policy and the employee had taken a leave on Friday as well. In this case, he took Saturday as a Compensatory Off. Hence, it should not be counted under leave.

No, it's not the same in the case of permitted leave. I mean to say, if an employee takes time off from his duties without prior permission, then the Sunday (normal week off) that falls during his extended absence is considered as absenteeism.

On the other hand, if he applies for and receives permission for an extended leave that includes a Sunday, then the Sunday will be classified as a paid holiday, while the other days will be considered as leave (CL/EL/SL). According to the Factories Act, one day off should be granted per week. It doesn't have to specifically be Sunday; the company can designate any day of the week as the weekly off day.

In addition to working hours, the weekly off day should be displayed on the notice board. Therefore, Sunday is the designated holiday if an employee works continuously for six days in a week. However, in the case of absence from work, it is not mandatory to provide a weekly off, and that day will also be counted as absent.

Please seek further clarification from senior management.

After working for six days, one day off is given, which is generally Sunday. On the off day, if the employee comes for duty, they receive another day as Compensatory Off against the off day. For your Annual Day ceremony, it is not regarded as being on duty, as you have come to attend the Annual Day Ceremony. However, if your management has decided to give that day as Compensatory Off, then it should be allowed for all employees. The employee who was on leave from Saturday to Wednesday should also be allowed Compensatory Off along with other kinds of leave.

Thanks,

Bijaya Kumar Sahu

[Phone Number Removed For Privacy Reasons]

Sr. Manager (HR & Admin.)

In my view, Saturday can be considered as a "Compensatory Off" and Sunday as a "Holiday/Week-Off." Then, the rest from Monday to Wednesday can be taken as "Leave."

It is a common practice for many employees to take a longer break by adding leaves either before or after the week-offs and holidays. The reason is that Sunday (in some companies/organizations, Saturday) is already a holiday, and they do not work on that day as it is a week-off.

To simplify, only the working days of companies/organizations should be considered for leaves or Loss of Pay (LOP).

Compensatory Leave Policy

An employer can require work for up to 10 consecutive days, but not more than that. If an employer receives work from an employee on their day off, usually Sunday, the employee will be given compensatory time off (C off) in lieu of Sunday within the immediate 4 days (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday). This is as per factory law.

Regards,
Nitish
[Phone Number Removed For Privacy Reasons]