How Should We Count Leave for a Friday and Half-Day Saturday Absence? Seeking Advice

Dear Sir,

Ours is a very small and compact company in New Delhi with 10-12 staff. We work for half a day every Saturday of the month. My query is if a staff member takes a full day leave on Friday and a half-day leave on Saturday, and then resumes duty on Monday, will it be treated as 2 days leave or 1 and a half days leave? Kindly advise.

Thanks,
Pronoy

Hi Pronoy,

For me, it is difficult to answer your post, but what I think is that you should calculate their absence on an hourly basis.

With Regards,
Mr. Thumbs Up

I think that your establishment is covered by the Delhi Shops & Est Act, 1954. The weekly holiday mandated by the Act is one day in a week. However, it is discernible from your post that you are allowed an additional holiday of half a day every Saturday. Therefore, the whole-day leave availed on Friday and the half a day availed on Saturday, the other half of which is a usual holiday, has to be reckoned as one and a half days of leave only.

Leave Calculation According to S&E Act of 1954

As per the S&E Act of 1954, every worker should get time off after every 48 hours of work. This is mandatory. In your case, you have the privilege of taking a half-day holiday on Saturday. Therefore, your employee leave should be counted as one and a half days of leave only.

Leave Calculation Method

Leave calculation is always done by considering both the prefix and suffix. For example, if an employee takes leave on the last working day of the week and then returns to work on the first working day of the following week, the leave should only be counted for the day they were absent.

However, if the employee does not return to work on the first working day of the week, then Sunday should also be considered as a leave day, counting from Saturday, Sunday, and Monday.

Regards,
Sathish G

You are being paid full salary for Saturday despite only half-day working being allowed. Thus, if you take Friday and Saturday as two full days of leave, it will be considered.

Every company has a different leave policy. As you mentioned, your staff works on Saturdays for only half a day, so the calculated leave should be 1 + 1/2.