Sick Leave Dilemma: Should Holidays and Weekends Count in Extended Absences?

Hello Everyone!

Please help me out with my query. We have 5 days of sick leave in our organization. One of our employees was suffering from some medical issues, due to which he was not able to attend the office for around a month.

Now, while calculating his leaves, should I include the Sundays and holidays in his leave balance? Also, should I deduct salary for those days as well? What are the basic rules, according to the sick leave policy, for the deduction of salary for leaves taken on the day before and after holidays?

Please help!

Regards,
Neha Khale

Dear Neha,

Now the question is what leaves you are calculating. If you are calculating SL or CL, then it entirely depends upon the policy already prevailing in the company. If you do not have any policy in the company, then you can treat the leave period in continuity, including Sundays and holidays, and you can deduct the salary for the unpaid leave period. If the sick leave is taken on the previous and subsequent day of holidays, then the holiday is treated as a paid holiday, even if the sick leave taken is without pay. Hope this will clear your query.

Hi Rajeev,

Thank you for your message. We do have a policy in our company. I just want to clarify whether there is any obligation that specifies holidays will not be counted as part of the sick leave entitlement.

Please let me know if you need any further information.

Best regards

Dear Neha,

It depends on the internal policy and varies from company to company. If the employee is continuously on leave, the holidays will not be covered. Therefore, we need to calculate including the holidays as well. For example, if an employee has taken leave for 5 days from Friday to Tuesday, we need to consider Sunday as leave, not a holiday. Do not calculate Sunday as a weekly holiday; it includes leave only.

Similarly, in your case, you need to consider 5 days as sick leave, and the remaining leave would be covered with EL (if available). Hence, when you are calculating, holidays should be accounted for as leave only.

Thank you.