Weekend Leave Confusion: Do Friday to Monday Leaves Count as Two or Four Days?

Hi HR Gurus,

Can anyone tell me if Saturday and Sunday are off, and if anybody is taking leave from Friday to Monday, will their leave be for two days (Friday and Monday) or will it be for four days from Friday to Monday? Please shed light on this issue and clear my confusion.

Regards,
Poonam

Dear Friend,

If you are working on SAP, then it will be counted as 2 days; otherwise, it will be counted as 4 days. The employee has to work either before or after the holidays.

Thank you,
Shiela Shetty

Our company is a telecommunications engineering firm, and we do not work with SAP. I am unsure whether I need to take 2 days off or 4 days off into consideration.

Dear Friend,

The person has to work either on Friday or Monday to be counted as leave for 2 days instead of 4 days. If the person is on leave on both the days before and after the holiday, then that day is counted with the holiday.

I hope I have made myself clear.

Thanks,
Shiela Shetty

Dear Poonam,

This is a very misunderstood concept. There is no one-line answer. It could be 2 days or four days. It depends on how the leave is calculated.

In the case of the Workmen cadre, leaves are generally allowed as per the Factories Act, i.e., one day leave for every 20 days of actual work; i.e., no leave is allowed on weekly rest, leaves, and holidays. Therefore, when we do not allow leave on weekly rest and holidays, then intervening weekly rest and holidays are also not counted as leave. Therefore, in such situations, only 2 days' leave will be counted if absence is from Friday to Monday with Saturday and Sunday as Offs. In the Executive/Management cadre, some companies also allow leave on this basis, but instead of 20 days, they allow it on 15 or 11 days.

Another alternative is that you allow 30 days or 25 days of EL/PL per year. In such situations, if there is an absent or Leave without pay, then leaves are reduced in the same proportion but no reduction takes place for weekly offs, holidays, and leaves. So, the employee earns leave on weekly offs, holidays, and leaves availed also. Therefore, when leave is earned on weekly offs and holidays, then intervening weekly offs are also counted as leave. So in this situation, 4 days' leave will be counted.

Hope this will clarify the position, and you will not need any further guidelines on this matter.

K K Tyagi

Dear Poonam,

The rule for your query is that any Holiday/Weekly Off that is prefixed and suffixed by CL/PL/EL will be counted. In your case, it will be construed as 4 days. Only if you are sick and on SL, the intervening holidays will not be counted. In your case, if you had taken SL on Friday and Monday, then Saturday and Sunday will not/should not be counted.

Notwithstanding the above, the leave policy of certain organizations varies and does not follow the above.

Thanks, Justin.AP

Hi HR gurus,

Kindly suggest,

I joined a private limited company on 1st June 2006 as an HR executive and applied for maternity leave on 25th November 2006 (25th Nov 2006 - 25 Feb 2007). Am I eligible for maternity benefits? Should I get paid for these three months? I have been told by the company management that it will be considered as "leave without pay." Can this leave vary from company to company? Kindly suggest?

Thanks,
Rakhi

Hi Poonam,

It's a four-day leave. It will be a two-day leave in the following cases:

Either the employee has taken leave from Thursday to Sunday or from Saturday to Tuesday.

Thank you.

Depends on your leave policy. If your leave policy does not allow sandwiched leave (leaves adjacent to the weekend), then it shall be 4 days. However, if Friday and Monday are part of a pre-informed and approved leave, and as per the policy, Saturday and Sunday do not count, then you would need to take 2 days off for sure!

I think there should not be any confusion. If you took two days off and at your workplace Saturdays and Sundays are not deemed as working days, then you are to enjoy Friday and Monday as the leave days you requested for. As one of the earlier postings suggested, if it was a sick excuse given by the doctor, then the weekend would have been included. If you have any doubts, ask HR for clarification on your leave policy to clear any uncertainty. But I bet this explanation is quite reasonable.

Paa kow

Hi,

This is a very tricky question because you can't justify it clearly since most of the time, what I have seen is that it totally depends on the management. If we follow the factories act, then this will be 2 days off (legally). Here, I must say that you should communicate your comments to your supervisor or management. If they agree with what the legal aspects suggest, then definitely opt for 2 days off. Personally, I would choose to take 2 days off only.

Kind Regards,
Rupendra

Hi Poonam,

Most of the companies consider it as a 4-day leave, i.e., they expect the employees to be present before his/her WOF starts or after his/her WOF (i.e., they should be either present on Friday or Monday). It depends on the company's policy.

Thanks & Regards,
Hima Bindu

Dear Rakhi,



Good luck for u and u r child.



For protection for working women Maternity Benefit Act 1961 is there. For your help I am citing some important point of this act. It will not only solves your questions same time it will enlighten your knowledge.

For your first question I think you are eligible for maternity benefit if you fulfill eligibility criteria (which are given below).

Maternity benefits are applicable to whole India.



1. ELIGIBILITY FOR MATERNITY BENEFIT:



A women shall be entitled to maternity benefit only if she has actually worked in an establishment of the employer for a period of not less then eighty days in the twelve months immediately proceeding the date of her expected delivery (section-5[2])



2. PAYMENT OF MATERNITY BENEFIT:



Every women shall be entitled to, and her employer shall be liable for, the payment of maternity benefit at the rate of average daily wage for the period of her actual absence, and any period of her actual absence, and any period immediately following the date of delivery and including the actual day for her delivery (Section –5).



In addition to the maternity benefit, every women shall also be entitled to receive a medical bonus of Rs.250/- if no prenatal confinement and post natal care is provided free of charge (section-8)



3. MAXIMUM PERIOD OF MATERNITY BENEFIT:

Maximum twelve weeks of which not more then six weeks shall proceed the date of her expected delivery (section-5[5])



4. OTHER BENEFITS:

Act also provides provisions for leave for miscarriage, leave for illness arising out of pregnancy or delivery, premature birth of child or miscarriage and nursing breaks for nursing the child until the child attained the age of 15 months (section-910 & 11)







5. DISMISSAL, DEDUCTION WAGES, ETC:

No employer shall discharge or dismiss a woman for her absence form work in accordance with the provisions of this Act and no deduction shall be made from the normal; and usual daily wages of a women entitled to maternity benefits. (section –12&13)



With regards



Kuldeep Singh Rathore

Dear Poonam,

It depends on the organization's policies. The middle holidays can be excluded. Discuss with your top executives and decide on this.

- Aravindan

Hi all :)

Can anyone help me with a leave chart? What is exactly a leave chart? If anyone has a leave chart format or a leave calendar format, please revert back.

Thanks in advance :D

Regards,
Preeti

Hi!

As per the Maternity Benefit Act, 80 days of continuous service should be completed before being eligible for 3 months of maternity benefits. However, prior information should be provided to the HR department indicating the pregnancy.

Regards,
Jennifer Isaac

Hi Preeti,

The leave chart varies from place to place. You can obtain the chart from the annual leave plan submitted by the respective departments of the company. For your reference, I'm sending you a sample roster and a policy on leave entitlement for junior staff that I prepared for a company.

Paa Kow

Dear Poonam,

There are different types of leaves. If someone has applied for Casual Leave (CL), then it would be counted as 2 days off. In the case of Privileged Leave (PL), the intervening offs will be counted as leave.

You will also have to refer to your company policy for the same.

Regards, Santosh

Hi Raki,

This varies from company to company. I have created a leave policy in my company which states that an employee must complete six months of service in the company to be eligible for maternity leave. Perhaps your company has a different policy. You can speak to the HR.

Regards,
Joylyn

Hello,

The leave can be for two days or four days; it depends on your organization's service rules.

Sincerely,
smmreddy

Hi dear,

Every organization has its own leave policy. Here, I attempt to shed some light on the leave policy by discussing the ALL INDIA SERVICE (LEAVE RULE) 1955.

Commencement and termination of leave - Except as provided in rule 20, leave ordinarily begins on the day the transfer of charge is effected and ends on the day preceding the day on which the charge is resumed.

Combination of holidays with leave - (1) Except in cases where, for administrative reasons, the leave sanctioning authority has specifically withheld permission for prefixing and/or suffixing holiday(s) to leave, when the day immediately preceding the day on which a Government servant's leave begins or immediately following the day on which his leave expires is a holiday or one of a series of holidays, the Government servant can leave his station at the close of the day before or return to it on the day following such holiday or series of holidays.

(2) In the case of leave on a medical certificate, if the day on which a Government servant is certified medically fit for re-joining duty happens to be a holiday, the day shall be suffixed to his medical leave, and such day(s) shall not be counted as leave.

(3) If holidays are prefixed to leave, the leave and any consequent rearrangement of pay and allowances take effect from the day after the holidays.

(4) If holidays are suffixed to leave, the leave is treated as having terminated, and any consequent rearrangement of pay and allowances takes effect from the day on which the leave would have ended if holidays had not been suffixed.

KULDEEP SINGH RATHORE

MBA-MBL

Hi,

What is the minimum number of leaves an employee at the executive and trainee levels is eligible for?

Dear Preeti,

In my current company, the employee claiming the benefit should have actually worked for a period of not less than eighty days in the twelve months immediately preceding the expected date of delivery. If our company has a similar policy, you are entitled to...

Thank you.

Dear All,

A lot of opinions and queries have been raised about leaves. I also want to put forth certain observations:

1. The minimum number of leaves to be allowed would depend on the law/act applicable to your organization. For example, for Factories, the minimum number of EL or PL would be one leave for every 20 days of work. If your organization comes under the Shops and Commercial Establishments Act, then you shall have to refer to it.

We can exceed this minimum, but we cannot grant fewer leaves than what is provided in the relevant statute. For CL and Medical Leaves, you shall have to refer to the Model Standing Orders applicable to your organization. Similarly, for the minimum number of holidays to be granted, you shall have to refer to the Model Standing Orders or Holidays Rules of the State where you are placed.

Similarly, if the Maternity Benefit Act allows that you need not grant maternity leave during the first six months of service, then it is okay. Otherwise, it will violate the said Act.

Coming back to interfixing of leaves, Mr. Kuldeep has cited Rules applicable to Govt. employees, and as per these Rules, Weekly Off/holidays falling between leaves will be counted as leave. Now, here I quote the Factories Act "Section 79 - Explanation 2" - 'The leave admissible under this sub-section shall be exclusive of all holidays whether occurring during or at either end of the period of leave.' If you ask your Factory Inspector, he will tell you that even the weekly off is exclusive. The Factory Act is applicable to Govt./Public Sector as well as Private Sector Organizations. So, what do you do? Many organizations have rules where for workers intervening 'OFFS' and 'HOLIDAYS' are not counted as leave, whereas for Officers, they are counted as leave. Why? The reason lies (as I had explained in my earlier response to this query) in how the leave is granted. As per the Factories Act, leave is granted based on the number of days of work performed. Therefore, only those days are counted towards leave where the employee would have performed work if he was not on leave. On weekly offs, employees would not have performed work even if they were not on leave.

In the case of Officers, leaves are normally granted on a lump sum basis, i.e., so many leaves per annum irrespective of the number of days on which work has been performed. For example, an Officer will get his full quota of leaves if he is not absent, irrespective of whether he was on leave for 30 days during the previous year or only on 5 days. So, here indirectly, leave is granted on Offs also and on Holidays also. Therefore, intervening holidays/offs are also treated as leave.

KKT

Dear Rakhi,

As per my view, if you are a confirmed employee, then you are entitled to maternity benefit and can get 3 months' salary. However, if you are on probation (which may differ from company to company from 6 months to 1 year), then you may not be able to get maternity benefit. There may be other perspectives as well, which my HR colleagues can help out with.

Regards,
Sashmita

It will be counted as 4 days. The person has to work either on Friday or on Monday in order to save 2 days.

Amit Bansal

I think you are eligible. Recently, I heard that even temporary personnel are also eligible for this.

Regards,
Manish

Hi Poonam,

It depends on the HR policy of the organization as it differs from organization to organization. But in my opinion, it will be four days, i.e., Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday; all will be included in the leave.

Regards,

Amit Seth.

Hi Poonam,

Please note that the counting of off days/holidays as part of leave, if sandwiched between the leaves, depends on the leave policy of your company and the nature of leave availed, i.e., CL or EL. In some cases, CLs as per policy do not exceed 3 at a stretch, and off days/holidays are not counted accordingly. But in the case of EL, it is counted.

Looking for further correction if I'm wrong. 🤔

Regards,
Saurabh

Dear Friends,

Please see the attachment files for the Leave Policy and how to manage it.

Regards,
PBS KUMAR

Hi Raaki,

I am not sure about the clause you have in your offer letter. If you are in a probation period or training period, then you are not entitled to maternity leave. Generally, the probation period is set for 6 months, but this varies from company to company. According to governmental rules, a minimum of 80 days of work is required. Maternity leave is generally for 12 weeks.

Please check with your HR team as some companies may only pay the basic part of the salary, so it's important to validate this with your team. I am sure they would be able to guide you with more information on this.

Regards,
Radhika

Dear all,

I have noticed confusion within the HR community regarding this issue. When it comes to leaves of any kind, there are government laws that cannot be violated. We can provide more benefits than what is legally required, but giving less would constitute a violation of the law.

For instance, the law does not mention anything about a probation period concerning leaves. If a technician joins an organization where the Factories Act applies on December 1st and has worked for 20 days, on January 1st, we must credit them with one E/PL regardless of whether they are on probation. Therefore, any company policy stating 'no leaves during the probation period' would breach the law.

Regarding Maternity Leave: if the law stipulates that only 80 days of work are necessary for the grant of Maternity Leave, then if an employee has completed 80 days of work, she must be granted Maternity Leave.

KKT

Yaa, this can vary, but the thing is any female employee can be eligible for maternity benefits as per the Maternity Benefit Act of 1961. If your company is following that, then you can claim.

Regards,
Lalita