Is Sunday Counted as Leave or Weekly Off During a Leave Period in Private Sectors?

For instance, during a leave taken when there is a Sunday or a public holiday, how is that considered? For example, a leave taken from 25th April 2015 to 27th April 2015 where 26th April is a Sunday. Another scenario is a leave taken from 27th July to 30th July where 26th July is a Sunday. In both cases, Sunday is considered as leave and not a weekly off. Can you please help me understand the leave policy for private sectors?

Thank you,
Revathi

Hi Buddy,

How do you consider a week off as leave? From the above example, only the 25th and 27th are taken as leave, not the 26th because it falls on Sunday (Week-Off). However, the above-mentioned scenario will differ based on the class of employees, such as Management Staff and Shop floor employees.

The law is common for both the public and private sectors. It states that every person who works for 6 continuous days is usually off on the 7th day.

With Regards,
Mr. Thumbs Up

Understanding Leave Entitlement After Six Days of Work

It is true that after six days of work, a worker (whether employed permanently or temporarily) is entitled to a day of rest. However, in this case, the worker has not worked for six days but was on leave on Saturday. Therefore, following that principle, he is not entitled to leave with wages for Sunday.

Regular Employee Leave Entitlements

In a practical scenario, regular employees are entitled to a certain number of leaves of different types, such as:
- Casual leave: 12 days per annum
- Sick leave: 12 days per annum
- Privileged leave/earned leave: Depending on the employee's grade, number of days worked in the preceding year, etc.

If you follow the Factories Act, any weekly off day or holiday that falls between two leaves (like in the example of 26th April or 26th July) should not be counted as leave. This is because leave for the succeeding year is based purely on the number of days physically worked in the current year. At the same time, if you have, in addition to earned leave/privileged leave/annual leave, any casual leave or sick leave, these can be as per company policy. According to the Factories Act, only earned leave is admissible, and CL or SL is outside the scope of the Act and is a bonus for the employees.

Shops and Commercial Establishments Act

Now, coming to Shops and Commercial Establishments, which are governed by the State Act, there seems to be no specific mention of how the sandwiched holiday should be treated. Since leaves under this Act are lump sum, like 12 days of CL, 12 days of SL, and 12 days of PL, and not based on the actual days present in the office by each employee in the preceding year, there is nothing wrong with taking the entire days, including holiday or weekly off day that intervenes the leave days, as leave. The Shops and Commercial Establishments Act, as already mentioned, is a state Act, and I have put my views based on the Kerala Act. The same is the case with the Karnataka and Tamil Nadu Acts.

Common Practices in Firms

Again, coming to practice, most firms follow that a holiday/weekly off day coming between two casual leaves will be counted as a weekly off or holiday, as the case may be, and that coming between PL or sick leaves should be treated as leave. The justification for this is that PL is usually taken for a longer period and not for a single day. Therefore, the employee may be deprived of the holidays and weekly off days because he has not been present for these long days. Similarly, if an employee is on sick leave on Saturday and Monday, it is presumed that he is sick on Sunday as well.

Importance of a Leave Policy

Anyway, it is always desirable to have a leave policy for the company and communicate it to the employees. If no policy exists, holidays and weekly offs should not be clubbed with leaves.

Regards,
Madhu.T.K

Hi,

In general, the Sundays and public holidays in between leaves are considered as leave only. If any private companies are more employee-friendly, they may not consider this. I think there are no such companies that exist to not consider it as leave.

Regards,
Raj

I agree with Madhu. It depends on the type of establishment as well as the leave policy of the establishment. The normal practice in Govt departments is prefixing and/or suffixing holidays to EL and ML but treating the intervening holidays as part of the leave applied for, other than in the case of CL.

Dear colleague,

Greetings. The leave policy may be as follows:

1. For casual/compensatory holidays: The intermittent Sunday is treated as a weekly off and not included in such leave.
2. For earned or other kinds of leave: Sunday is not treated as a weekly off since the employee has not worked on the days before and after Sunday, and it is included in the leave period.

Hope this satisfies your query.

Ramanathan

Leave can either be suffixed or prefixed. Suppose you apply for leave on Saturday and do not report on Monday, your 3 days of leave will be considered as per the practice in private organizations.

As per the Companies Act, one holiday (i.e. Sunday or any public holiday) between two leaves is treated as leave, whether it is a private company or a public limited company. There is no question regarding whether the employee worked for 6 days or not.

1) If the weekly holiday falls in between the leave days, then the weekly holiday will also be considered as leave.

2) If the leave starts from or ends with a weekly holiday, then that weekly holiday will not be considered as leave.

As per compliance, all holidays including the week off are excluded from counting as leave, even if they are sandwiched. They can be suffixed or prefixed. It's the organization's leave policy, wherein they clearly mention that holidays or week off falling between leaves shall be taken as leaves. This is to make leave counting easy and clean.

If you are calculating salary for 26 days, then we should not consider the weekly off as leave. However, if the salary calculation is for 30/31 days, then the weekly off should be considered as leave days.

If any employee takes leave from Saturday to Monday, then Sunday is automatically treated as leave. The tenure of leave from Saturday to Monday is the same for both government and private firms. In that case, all the leaves will be deducted either from CL, EL, PL, or from Sick Leave if you applied for Sick Leave.

Leave Policy Clarification

If an employee is taking leave before and after the weekly off or holiday, then the weekly off and paid holiday will also be counted as leave.

For example:
1. If A is on leave on Saturday and Monday, then Sunday will also be counted as leave, and the total leave days will be 3.
2. If B is on leave on Saturday and rejoins on Monday, then only one day of leave will be counted, i.e., Saturday.
3. If C is on leave on Monday, then also only one day of leave will be counted, i.e., Monday.

If this is not correct, please advise on the correct procedure.

Regards

Normally, the intervening holidays during the leave period are exempted from the leave account and shall be considered as holidays and not leave. This is the case for Earned leave or privileged leave, which may be statutory or governed by employment rules or standing orders of the company. In the case of CL and SL, this will not be applicable. CL and SL can be a prefix or suffix to the holiday but not both.

Adoni Suguresh
Labour laws Consultant

As per the Shops and Establishments Act of Maharashtra, if a two-weekly holiday falls in between the leave days, then the weekly holiday will also be considered as leave.

Could you please provide a brief explanation and the correct suggestion? I am looking forward to your response.

Thanks,
DEVENDRA
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