Leave Calculation Dilemma: How Do You Count Days Off in This Scenario?

Greetings! I have a query on the case below: how to calculate leave for an employee in the following scenario.

Leave Calculation Scenario

Saturday: leave
Sunday: day off
Monday: leave

How many days are counted as leave?

As per the Shops & Commercial Establishments Act, if an employee takes leave on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday (week off or any festival holiday in between two leaves), then it shall be treated as 3 days of leave. If management decides, then it shall be considered as either 2 days of leave, which is welcome. There is no objection as per the rules. It entirely depends upon the management as part of employee benefits.

Hope you are clear.

In the case of casual leave, it will be considered as three days if the leave policy states it explicitly. I worked for a company that had this type of policy.

In the case of government organizations or PSUs, if casual leave is taken, then the number of leaves deducted will be 2 days. If any other category of leave is taken, it will be treated as leave for 3 days.

Further, when holidays and weekly off days are suffixes and/or prefixes to the leave period, and the person resumes duty after the holiday or weekly off day, only the number of days for which leave is availed is deducted from the leave at credit in both cases.

I agree with Mr. Mohanti. If the leave is CL, then it will count as 02 leave, but if it is any other leave, then it will be 03 leave. Secondly, it depends on the company policy.

Regards,

If a person has taken leave on Saturday and is not present on Monday, then Sunday is also considered as leave.

Understanding Leave Calculation Under the Factory Act

As per the Factory Act, Earned Leave is exclusive of Sundays. However, in the case of Casual Leave (CL), it is subject to management policy and may be counted as three or two days.

I am inclined to disagree with many views expressed on the subject. First, normally, a query put on the Board of this Forum is assumed to pertain to the private sector. As our fraternity members are well aware, most of our industries are covered under the Minimum Wages Act. So, the wages, or even the salaries of staff and executives, are computed based on a 26-day formula. Hence, the Act and Rules state that Sunday is a foregone holiday.

So, leave availed on Saturday and Monday, or for that matter even for 12 days continuously, it is the paid working days that are reckoned for debiting leave, and not 3 calendar days for debiting leave. Therefore, the company policy ought to be, and rules say that, in the instant query, only 2 days are to be reckoned and not 3 days. Some companies may practice 3 days leave, just to dissuade the employees from taking a longer weekend leave. But that is not the legal status.

Regards,
Ravi Adviser-HR Management

How will you calculate Loss of Pay wages in your organization? What is the formula you use? In case you use 26 days as the denominator for calculating one day's wage/salary for loss of pay, then the weekly off/Sunday cannot be included in leave adjustment.

If you use 30 days or the actual number of days in the month as the basis, then the weekly off will be adjusted as leave. The Factories Act does not consider the weekly off with wages; hence, it excludes the weekly off from being adjusted against leave.

Some of the Shops and Establishment Acts provide for a weekly off with pay. Check in your State what is prescribed. If the weekly off is paid, then adjust Sunday/weekly off against leave.

Thanks,
Sivasankaran

In the normal course, the weekly off cannot be counted as leave. Only two days can be taken as leave. The weekly off is a routine occurrence, whether it is a weekly off with pay (30 days) or without pay (26 days), as the case may be, for wage calculation purposes.

Regards,
D. Gurumurthy
LL. HR & IR Consultant
Hyderabad.

Hi Shilpi, if it is a software industry or any other industry where Saturday and Sunday are considered weekends, only Monday is counted as leave.

Regards,
Sravanthi

You have not stated under which Act the Factory Act provides for leave with wages. All leaves under the Factory Act shall be exclusive of all holidays, whether occurring during or at either end of the period of leave (Explanation 2 to Sec 79 Factory Act).

The Factory Act has no provisions for casual leave/sick leave. Shops and commercial establishments have provisions for CL/SL.

In general practice, Sundays/paid holidays/national festivals occurring before or at either end of the earned leave/privilege leave can be prefixed/suffixed and will not be counted as leave. However, if these occur during the leave period, they have to be treated as leave.

In respect of casual leave, any Sunday/paid holiday occurring before the leave commences or after the expiry of the leave period can be added as a prefix or suffix; however, if occurring during the leave period, it will be treated as leave.

Much depends on the agreement or contract of service and the leave policy of the establishment.

Regards,
RL Dhingra

As per Section 22 of the Delhi Shop & Establishment Act and Rule 10 thereof, there is no provision for deducting the absence of employees on the weekly off day from the leave account in the query raised by you. Regarding casual leave, normally intervening holidays are not accounted for, but in the case of privilege leave, it is not so. It is better for an organization to have a sound policy in this regard.

Hope the above clarifies.

Regards,
kk

Alternative Leave Option

Another option is to take a Compensatory Off (C-Off) on Saturday, substituting it for a regular working day. In this case, you would only need to take one day of casual leave.

- Saturday: C-Off
- Sunday: WO (Weekly Off)
- Monday: Casual Leave

Please let me know if you need further assistance or clarifications.

Dear Sangeetha, can you please reference which law states this? I want to know because I also raised such an issue.

With regards,
V. Subbarao
[Phone Number Removed For Privacy Reasons]

I have been seeing many posts on this subject without any reference to the legal position barring a few.

Factories Act

This act has no provision for CL or Sick Leave, and in a factory, if you have introduced CL or Sick Leave, then whatever rules the Company has framed will be applicable. Providing extra leave is beneficial, and hence whatever rules a Company frames will be legal. However, the Factories Act also does not contemplate a weekly off with wages. It provides for a weekly off. Moreover, Earned Leave provided in the Factories Act will count only the working days, and any leave falling in between will not be counted.

Keeping this background in mind, let us examine further. I already wrote in this posting that it depends on how we calculate wages for loss of pay leave. If we take 26 as the denominator, then we do not consider payment for a weekly off. Consider the following logic:

1. Factories act provide for earned leave.
2. It also provides for the exclusion of a Weekly off from counting earned leave. In other words, Sundays falling in between will not be counted.
3. With this logic, we normally use 26 as the denominator in Factories wherever we have monthly rates. In daily rates, such confusion will not occur.
4. If we use one logic for Earned leave, it does not mean that we need to use the same logic for CL or SL, which are not provided in law.
5. We can provide for the inclusion of CL or SL in a factory if a Sunday falls in between or we can exclude as well depending on the Company's policy.

Shops and Establishments Act

This act provides for Earned Leave and Casual leave and in some cases Sick Leave as well. This Act, in many States, also provides for a Weekly off with pay. This clause also puts a condition that to be eligible for a weekly off with pay, an employee must have worked for 6 days in the week. The Act does not exclude the counting of a weekly off for Earned Leave or Casual leave.

With the above as a backdrop, let us examine the logic:

1. The Act provides for Earned leave and Casual leave.
2. Weekly off is paid.
3. Hence the monthly rate of wages needs to be divided by 30 to arrive at the Daily rate.
4. If we arrive at the daily rate by using 30 as the denominator, then include a weekly off falling in between paid leave.
5. However, the Minimum wages act prescribes division by 26 to arrive at the daily rate.
6. This clause of the Minimum wages Act is applicable only where we restrict our payment to the prescribed minimum wages.
7. In such an event, then exclude Sundays falling in between two paid leave.

My submission in this forum on this subject is:

1. Examine relevant legal provisions.
2. Decide the denominator for arriving at one-day wages for calculating loss of pay or overtime or encashment of leave.
3. That will bring out a logical conclusion as to whether Sundays falling between two paid leave can be counted as leave or not.

Thanks,

T. Sivasankaran

First, tell me if you are a government employee or a private employee? Because according to government rules, in government organizations, PSU organizations, and corporations, two days' leave will be considered if Sunday is a day off. Only two days of leave on Saturday and Monday will be considered in the case of casual leave, but it will be considered as three days in the case of earned leave.

If you wish to know more about law and order, visit the DOPT website for additional details and orders.

Regards,
Sushil Mainwal
[Phone Number Removed For Privacy Reasons]

I have the same query but in a different context. Here's the scenario:

- Saturday: 1st half-day present
- Sunday: Weekly Off
- Monday: 1st half absent but 2nd half present

The question is, should Sunday be considered as a paid day off or not? Your clarification on this matter is greatly appreciated as this rule has caused dissatisfaction among many employees in my company.

Regards,
Jass

Incorporate the Leave and Make Adjustments Accordingly

Treat it as a two-day leave. Rules are not established because employees are dissatisfied. Rules are formulated for the smooth functioning of a company.

Regards,
T. Sivasankaran

Leave Calculation for Sunday

Sunday will pay either a suffix or prefix. If it falls between Saturday and Monday, then it will be counted as 3 days leave.

Regards,
Balwant

As per the Factory Act, Earned Leave is exclusive of Sundays. However, in the case of Casual Leave (CL), it is determined by management policy and may be counted as three or two. This is the correct one. I agree with Anuj.

The Delhi Shops and Establishment Act (Section 22) only discusses eligibility and not the manner of leave calculation. The company's leave policy will determine whether it is 2 days or 3 days.

Regards,
Preetam Deshpande

In case the employee is absent for 12 days, i.e., up until Saturday, and resumes back on Monday, will Sunday be paid? We do not have PLs. We only have CLs. Kindly guide.

Regards,
Priya

[QUOTE=shilpichauhan87;1873108]
Understanding the Legality of the Sandwich Rule in India

We think it's illegal and need to study the same. Here are some issues that many companies incorporated in India are facing:

• Many companies in India follow the Sandwich Rules. If an employee takes leave and a non-working day or public holiday falls between those leaves, companies count all those days as leave in their attendance sheet and deduct the employee's wages accordingly.

• In such cases of deduction, the contribution towards the employee's provident fund is also deducted by the employer.

• All companies are required to submit the leave calendar as per the Shops and Establishment Act, which declares that there shall be no work on these days. However, even in these cases, wages are deducted by companies following the Sandwich Rule.

• No company mentions the Sandwich Rule in their offer or appointment letters issued to employees.

• Wages are even deducted for public holidays, including Independence Day.

• All citizens working in private and public companies are facing issues due to this illegal Sandwich Rule followed by the companies.

• Further, in the case of leave, only basic wages are to be deducted. This point needs to be checked.

There is a need to review all the labor laws to determine whether this practice is legal or not.

Leave Policy and Calculation

In the leave policy, if we are working on a monthly rate, suppose a salary of Rs. 10,000/- per month for an XYZ employee, then the weekly off (Sunday) will be counted as leave. [Salary calculation = 10,000 / (Monthly days) * Payable days (Including Weekly off).]

However, if we are working on a daily rate basis for a worker, meaning Rs. 305/- per day for the employee, then the weekly off (Sunday) is not counted as leave. In this case, the employee has to fill up leave only for Saturday and Monday. (Wages Calculation is Rs. 305 * Payable days (Without Weekly off).)

Generally, the staff category is on a monthly rate, and the worker category is on a daily rate basis, and this method is also decided in almost every company.

Regards,
Nilesh Bhatt

[Phone Number Removed For Privacy Reasons]

What will happen if leaves are taken at the end of the month? For example, if I took leave on the 29th (Friday), 30th (Saturday), 31st (Sunday), and 1st (Monday), is it considered sandwiching or not?

If an employee is absent on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, is Sunday considered applicable or not?