Is It Fair to Deduct 3 Days of Leave for a Saturday-Monday Absence? Seeking Urgent Advice

Dear Members,

I am working in a law firm as Manager HR. One of the advocates is arguing that there are few companies where they do not deduct the leave if taken on consecutive days. For example, if you have taken leave on Saturday and Monday, our practice is to deduct 3 days of leave. However, the advocate says that HR should deduct only 2 days of leave instead of 3.

Kindly advise whether the policy differs from company to company or if HR is correct in deducting 3 days of leave. If there have been any updates in the leave policy, please let me know.

VERY URGENT !!!!!

Regards,
Shiela Shetty

Hi Sheila,

To my knowledge, the leave policy differs from company to company. The leave structure in terms of casual leave, sick leave, vacation leave, etc., and whether the Business Holidays and Weekend leave are to be considered is specific for every company and is defined in the Employee Handbook or Company Policy Manual for Associates' reference.

If there is no such policy defined for your company, you could work on formulating it with the help of Top Management.

Sri

Dear Sri,

You have not understood my question. What I want to ask is, should we deduct leave for 3 days if the person is going on leave on Saturday and Monday, or should we deduct 2 days?

What is your answer for this?

Regards,
Shiela

Shaila,

I have worked in four companies. Everywhere, it is two days we have to deduct if it is EL, Comp Off, CL, or any special leaves on Saturday and Monday. We have to deduct Sunday only if it is Absent or loss of pay, which doesn't come under any special leaves.

Sameer

Dear Sheila,

The argument of the advocate is correct if you are deducting leave such as Earned Leave, Casual Leave, and Sick Leave. If it is Special Leave such as Maternity Leave or Paternity Leave, you can deduct 3 days. This is the same policy we are following in our Public Sector Company.

Regards,
Siddeswara

Dear HR,

You are right. It should be 3 days. However, if you think it's going to demotivate your employee, there is no harm in changing the rules.

Regards,
Gabriel Shashidhar

Hi Shiela,

Yes, one should deduct, and it is a universal practice to deduct 3 days. The idea behind this is to discourage employees from taking consecutive leaves. Sundays are being misused, and this will encourage other employees to plan their leaves like this, leading to more absenteeism both on the opening and closing days of the week.

Neetu

Hi,

As Sri rightly pointed out earlier, the leave policy should be framed in consultation with the top management. There are no prescribed guidelines as such. Generally, it is counted as 3 days when one takes Saturday and Monday as leave. However, it can be changed and kept as 2 days since the employee has actually taken leave for 2 days. One can also frame it in such a way that if, and only if it is a part of privilege leave which one generally takes when they take leave for a vacation or visit back home, in which case the leave days will be counted as 2 only. I strongly recommend that it should be kept as 2 days irrespective of Sunday forming part of it.

Opinions differ, anyway.

Regards,
Vikas

Hi,

Who says deducting three days is a universal practice? It all depends on the company policy. As far as I know, we should not deduct Sundays that fall between the leave period unless the employee is on Loss of Pay. These practices will only demotivate the employee.

Regards,
Sree

Hi Sheila,

I work as an HR Manager in an IT organization. It depends from organization to organization how the HR policies are implemented. For instance, in my previous organization, the policy stated to deduct three leaves if the employee is absent on Saturday as well as Monday. Here, Sunday will also be considered a leave, and if any public holidays fall in between, they won't be counted. For example, if an employee goes on leave on a Friday, and Saturday is a public holiday, but the employee returns on Tuesday, then Saturday is also considered as a leave.

In my current organization, I have designed the leave policy in a similar manner as you specified. In this case, only two leaves will be deducted, and Sunday won't be counted.

It all depends on the HR practices of the specific organization. There are pros and cons to both policies. The first one reduces absenteeism and decreases employee morale, while the second one increases employee morale.

Regards,

Roop
rupalt@gmail.com

Dear Sheila,

As per my knowledge, if leave is taken before and after Sunday, it should be calculated as 3 days.

With warm regards,
Om Prakash

Hi,

There are already many responses on this. I would suggest designing your own policy now since you have already obtained suggestions from many of us. Some companies deduct three days, including Sunday, while others do not. So, dear, the ball is in your court now; it is your decision. Deducting 2 days is a better policy in my opinion.

Cheers,
Archna

Hi Sheila,

Based on my experience, I recommend considering a deduction of 2 days of leave for your employee and requesting them to compensate on other general holidays. It would be fair for an employer to provide such cushioning for employees so that they can feel motivated and have a positive outlook.

Regards,
Abhi

Hi Sheila,

You are on the right track; even we follow the same. Not only is it applicable for WFH days but also for all public holidays. Being a MNC, we adhere to global policies only, so carry on...

Rajashree Pillai

If the employee takes casual leave on Saturday and Monday, only two days of leave will be deducted, and Sunday will not be counted. However, if the employee takes earned leave, Sunday will be counted, and three days of leave will be deducted. This provision is present in every state's Shop and Establishment Act. Each state has its own act, but they are similar in their provisions. The state's Shop and Establishment Act covers offices such as corporate offices, shops, malls, law firms, etc. Similar provisions are found in the Factory Act, which applies to all manufacturing units and factories.

Some companies adopt good HR practices by providing more casual and earned leaves, offering relaxation to employees. These companies do not follow rigid rules and, therefore, do not deduct any leaves on holidays, but such companies are rare.

Dear All,

Can anybody tell me about public holidays in a year? Is it compulsory for every company? Are the number of holidays fixed?

Regards,
Anand

Hi Anand,

In India, public holidays are enumerated in every state's Shop and Establishment Act, Factory Act, or various Government Notifications. Three holidays are compulsory, and these are 26th January, 15th August, and 2nd October. No establishment can be opened on these three days. Other festival days may be declared as holidays based on the company policy. As a general practice, instead of giving many one-day holidays, management prefers not to declare one-day small festivals as holidays. However, on big festivals like Diwali or Holi, 5-6 days of continuous holidays are declared.

Hi all,

The leave policy will also depend on your number of working days in a week. If your organization works only 5 days, then you can count Friday or Monday in the CL/EL/SL calculation.

Regards,
Radha

Leave policies vary from organization to organization. However, one commonly observed rule is that casual leave can be prefixed or suffixed to holidays, whereas earned leave/privilege leave cannot be availed in this manner. You can take Friday and the following Monday as casual leave and get the benefit of four days of absence. If the leave taken is of any other kind, the holidays also are counted.

Dear Shiela,

By going through the responses to your query, you must have by now gotten a fair idea of the policies and practices regarding leave. The leave policy varies across organizations/industries/sectors.

I work for an R&D house, and we allow people to prefix, suffix, and sandwich weekends and holidays with CLs and ELs without counting the holidays and weekends as leaves. Our leave philosophy is not to make it difficult for people to take leaves when they require it for any purpose.

Cheers!

Faizal Haque

I think it varies from company to company. Taking into consideration both employees and management, you can either go for 2 or 3.

We have a term for these three leaves. You must be aware of it. It's called Sandwich Leave.

My view is that it should be 2 days if Sunday is not a working day. Otherwise, the employee can simply split the leave applications into 2: one on Saturday and one on Monday.

In most countries, this is a legal requirement (i.e. part of the Employment Act) to provide workers Annual Leave for non-working days.

My company is using a Leave Management Software from Justlogin at www.justlogin.com, which automatically takes care of all the leave policies set up by our HR. - CK

Dear All,

SHEILA SHETTY is correct. Leaves taken before and after off days should be marked as leave, and CL or SL should not be combined.

Pankaj
HR Department

Hi All,

It's a company policy. I have worked with different companies, including Fortune 500 companies, where weekly offs are not considered when calculating working days. This has an impact on employee morale towards the organization.

Regards, Sathiya

Dear Sheila,

If he has applied for Casual Leave, then you have to deduct 3 days. If he has applied for Paid Leave/Earned Leave or Compensatory Off, you have to deduct 2 days only.

Dear Sheila,

The policy differs from company to company. If an employee is recruited on a daily rate and leave eligibility is decided in the settlement, then the employee has to take 2 days of leave only, i.e., Saturday and Monday.

Thanks,
Sanjeev

Dear Sheila,

The policy for leave varies from company to company. If an employee is appointed on a daily rate in an organization, then you must consider 2 days (i.e., Sat and Mon).

Thanks,
Sanjeev

In my organization, if an employee takes leave on Saturday and Monday, then even Sunday is considered as leave. Now, my question is, if Saturday and Monday are public holidays, would Sunday still be considered a leave?

Policy is framed to run the business smoothly and also keeping the best interest of associates.

I have seen companies that deduct three days if you take one off in between two declared holidays. If your business (service industry) requires employees' presence at the workplace due to services rendered, you need to adopt what your lawyer says. Policy is your call (top management and HR) in the best interest of the business and the people who support running the business (i.e., employees).

But what if Saturday and Monday are public holidays, then is Sunday considered a leave or not?

---

Hi there,

If Saturday and Monday are public holidays, would Sunday be considered a day off as well?

The leave policy varies from company to company. As far as our policy is concerned, "Any holiday/weekly off, if prefixed or suffixed, or both, with PL, will not be counted as leave. However, any intervening holiday during the PL period shall be treated as part of leave availed."

Bijaya

Dear all,

If the employee is absent on 24th January, 25th January, 26th January, and 27th January, will he be eligible for the national holiday as paid, i.e., 26th January?