Continuous Leave Dilemma: Should Holidays and Sundays Be Counted as Leave Days?

A confirmed employee takes leave continuously from 13 Oct '10 to 19 Oct '10. In between, there is a Navaratri holiday on 16 Oct, and 17 Oct is Sunday. Does he have the right to get those days as a holiday and Sunday off, as he has taken continuous leave? Please reply.

Thanks,
Hari.

If the number of days for salary calculation is 30 days, then the holidays that fall between leaves will be considered as part of the leave. However, if the number of days for salary calculation is only 26 days, then the holidays permitted by the company and Sundays will not be taken into consideration. I hope this clarifies your query.

Regards,
Navnit

It depends on your company's leave policy. If you sandwich holidays and weekends in between your leave duration, it's called 'covering'. If you prepend or append holidays and leaves along with your PL, it's called 'clubbing'. So the options for a company are:

1. Allow clubbing and covering
2. Allow covering but not clubbing
3. Allow weekend covering and clubbing but not holiday covering & clubbing
4. Don't allow clubbing and covering

If you wish to keep your HR administration overhead lower, it is best to have simple leave rules. But if your workforce is large and clubbing and covering is impacting your business, you have no choice but to implement these rules.

These days, web-based leave management software (at least the better ones like Greytip Online) lets you define your leave rules and automatically enforce them, allowing HR to focus on better things to do.

Under the Factories Act, holidays and weekly off days falling during the leave period will not be treated as part of earned leave (EL).

It totally depends on the leave policy prevalent in your organization. If you have a policy in place, refer to it; otherwise, frame one. As mentioned by Mr. Vasant Nair, holidays and workdays off should not be a part of the leaves taken by the employee.

Regards,
Rahul Chhabra

It depends on whether the leaves are taken from the existing leave balance or if it is 'Leave without Pay'. If an employee has a leave balance, they will be paid for the two days like other employees. In the case of 'Leave without Pay', the employee does not have the right to get compensated for their holidays.

Hope this helps.

Regards,
Pranav