How Should We Handle Leave Requests on a Non-Working Day Between Holidays?

Considering Leave on a Non-Working Day

How should we consider a leave taken by an employee on a Tuesday when Monday and Wednesday were declared as holidays by the company? We work 5 days a week.

Dear keshavcb, Are you working in HR? What EXACTLY is the problem you are facing here? What is your Leave Policy? Fair employee practices would mean that if an employee has been granted leave for that period, in that case, his leave balance should be reduced only to the extent of leave taken.

Regards.

Dear Keshavcb, actually, as said by Rajkumar, it's simple logic. That leave has been granted as a PL if applicable or if balance.

Sushant

Dear Keshavcb, If it is a factory, an employee/workman proceeding on any kind of leave, whether Leave with wages i.e., EL or PL/CL/SL, any holiday either falling before the commencement of leave (called prefix) or in between the leave period or after the leave period (called suffix) has to be excluded from the total days.

In the Shops Act, any holiday before leave commences or at the end of the leave period is excluded; any holiday falling/occurring between the period of leave has to be counted as leave. Much depends upon the leave policy of the establishment.

Hope it is clarified. If you have any doubts, please contact RLDhingra, Advocate, Labour Law Consultant, Delhi, at [Phone Number Removed For Privacy Reasons] or email at [Email Removed For Privacy Reasons].

Best regards,
Regards

Dear Keshavcb, as far as my knowledge is concerned, I am providing an example to clarify your doubt regarding the question, "Employee has taken leave on Tuesday when Monday and Wednesday were declared holidays by the company."

1. So, if the employee takes leave on Thursday after Wednesday or on Friday/Saturday, whichever is a working day before Monday, then only their leave should be counted as taken, including those holidays.

2. However, this specific employee has taken leave very tactfully. Therefore, their leave would be counted as 1 day of PL/CL, whichever is applicable.

It will be considered as one day of leave. However, if the employee also takes leave on Thursday, then Wednesday's holiday will be counted as leave. Saturday, Sunday, and Monday will remain as holidays.

You cannot treat any closed day as a part of leave if it happens to be before the commencement and after the end of a leave period. However, any Sunday or holiday falling in between the period of leave applied would become a part of E/L or P/L, as the case may be.

However, in your case, since Wednesday happens to be in between the leave period starting from Tuesday, the day of Wednesday will be treated as a part of leave. In casual leave, however, any Sunday or holiday falling in between the C/L period will not count as a part of C/L in any case.

If Monday and Wednesday are declared holidays for your company, and if your employee avails Tuesday as a leave day, then only 1 day of leave needs to be debited. As per labor law, if a national or festival holiday falls in between the leave period, it should not be treated as leave but as a holiday.

Thanks.

Regards,
R K Nair

Hi all, it is as simple as that any leave on a working day is a leave, be it before or after the holidays announced by the company. So, only one leave should be deducted. An employee is not applicable for any paid holiday announced in this case wherein they have been absent from the company for the past two to three weeks or a month.

Dear Keshav, it is mainly based on the leave rules applicable to the organization. The sandwich type of leave is a common practice carried out by employees when such close holidays are declared. It should be considered as one day Casual Leave (CL) only. If your leave rules specifically prohibit these types of leaves, then only can you consider the holidays as leaves.

Regards,
Dinesh Shitole, Pune

Agreed with Mr. PS Dhingra's opinion, "any Sunday or holiday falling in between the C/L period will not count as a part of C/L in any case."

It depends on your leave policy. If your leave policy indicates that it will be treated as a prefix and suffix, then only one day of leave will be taken into consideration. Therefore, your leave policy must be very clear.

Thank you

Dear Members,

The leave rules vary from company to company as it is an internal matter of the company. In the case at hand, the following should happen as a general rule: the leave on Tuesday will be considered as C/L. Sandwich leave is a different concept and is explained below: if any employee takes leave on Friday and Saturday and Sunday are off days and again takes leave on Monday, in that case, Saturday and Sundays may be considered as leaves taken. However, this is subject to the policy of the company. In view of this, Tuesday Leave is not a sandwich leave and will only be considered as one leave.

I also do not like the Sandwich Leave concept, Mr. Dhingra.

Dear Kamal Kant,

You may or may not like the Sandwich Leave concept. It is not a question of liking or disliking for any individual. Uniformity in policies is a must. Government policies are made in the common interest of the masses with no flexibility to vary according to the wishes of individuals.

Do you think if the office is closed on account of some holiday, the employee would be compelled to report for duty after availing of one day's casual leave, while all other employees would have the right to enjoy that holiday? Should the employee on casual leave be singled out to deprive him of that right?

Dear Mr. Dhingra,

I also think the same way you do. Unfortunately, there is no direction from the government on this concept, due to which companies apply this sandwich rule. In my opinion, this rule per se is not bad. It prevents mass leave by employees, but it should not be used in its strict sense if somebody has taken leave on some genuine grounds; in such a case, this rule should not be applied.

Let me narrate an incident involving my brother. My brother fell ill just one day before Diwali. In that year, there was a situation where there were 4 days off for Diwali. My brother could not recover by the end of that holiday period and was advised by the doctor to take another 4 days of rest. Although he only took two more days of rest and reported back for duty, his leave account was debited by 7 days while every other employee had enjoyed 4 days of leave. I wrote a letter to his HR with the doctor's prescription, and only after that was he given the credit of 4 days of leave.

I know how it feels, but if you look at this rule from the company's perspective, it should be applied in cases where an employee who has Saturday and Sunday off takes leave on Friday and Monday just for amusement, being off duty for 4 consecutive days. Many companies may not be able to afford such leave. Necessity is one thing; if someone does this due to a genuine problem, this rule should not be applied. That is why I said it depends on company policies. Every company policy should be implemented in a humane manner; this is my belief. There should be a balance in the situation.

The government should come up with some directive on this.

Regards

Dear Kamal, you are an advocate, and you could have fought the case of your brother with the company. If the case related to casual leave only, that action on the part of the company was not proper to debit 7 days of leave as against 3 days and treating holidays also as part of leave. The company could have been questioned if it had opened and worked as usual on the holidays, and why all those holidays had not been treated as casual leave for all of its employees, including the Directors of the company.

Secondly, an employee who goes on leave uses their own entitled leave. No company allows extra days of leave in any circumstance. The company cannot close if someone does not come for duty for one or two days while on leave. Additionally, the company does not earn any profit during the closed days on account of holidays if the employee is supposed to reach the office just to touch the locked office from outside.

It is the narrow-mindedness of certain managers at the helm of affairs that makes the situation complex, not only for the employees but also for the entire management due to their egoistic and arbitrary attitudes. Think about why trade union problems arise. Such arbitrary decisions of the management provoke the employees and their leaders when they get fed up with their extremist activities towards sincere employees, leading to their becoming insincere towards the organization. The management, in fact, is required to treat its employees like a family.

As we have already mentioned, you may implement "the Sandwich Rule." Just make a policy that before or after the fourth Saturday, i.e., on Friday and Monday, any leave taken must be backed up by a medical certificate or must be sanctioned by their respective reporting manager, as the managers are responsible for assigning work to employees. In any other situation, you may treat the leaves for 3 days instead of 1 day. I hope that will resolve your problem to a great extent. Best of luck.

Regards, XHR