Curious About Sandwich Leave Policy: How Are Festival Leaves Counted in IT Companies?

I am working in an IT company as a software developer. I came to know that my company follows the Sandwich Leave Policy. I just wanted to know whether the Sandwich Leaves are counted during festivals. For example, with Holi approaching, my company is offering a holiday on 23rd (Wednesday) and 24th (Thursday) March 2016. If an employee takes leave on 25th (Friday) March 2016, followed by the weekend off (Saturday and Sunday), should it be calculated as 1 day's leave or 5 days' leave?

Regards,
[Username]

What you have mentioned would be a specific practice of your company. With the given information, nobody can tell you how many days will be deducted. This is according to your company's practice and has nothing to do with the prevailing labor laws (in your case, shops and commercial establishment rules).

Examples of Leave Deduction Practices

I can give similar examples:

1. Deduct 4 days of leave when an employee avails leave on Friday and Monday (Sat & Sun - Week Off).
2. Deduct 3 days of leave when an employee avails leave on Friday (Thu - Holiday, Sat & Sun - Week Off).
3. Deduct 1 day of leave when an employee avails leave on Thursday (Fri - Holiday, Sat - Week Off).
4. Deduct 2 days of leave when an employee avails leave on Sunday (Fri - Holiday, Sat - Week Off), etc.

I hope this helps clarify the situation. Let me know if you need further information.

Best regards

Understanding the Sandwich Leave Policy

In order to be called a sandwich, both ends should be open or leave days. Therefore, if you had a working day on Friday, then the prefix will be Tuesday (Wednesday and Thursday being holidays) and the suffix will be Monday (Saturday and Sunday being weekly off days). If any employee was on leave on both these days in addition to Friday, then only he would lose the holidays and weekly off days. That also depends on how you have framed the leave policy. There is no legal sanctity for this practice.

The commonly accepted practice is that if the leave days are granted as CL, then only the absented days will be marked as leave, and if it is PL or SL, then all the holidays/weekly off days will be counted as leave days. Therefore, if he was present on Tuesday and is taking CL on Friday, he will get the benefit of all the leaves and weekly off. Similarly, if he was on leave on Tuesday but reports to duty on Monday, then also he will get the holidays and weekly off days.

Again, under the Factories Act, the PL is to be counted independently, and the holidays and weekly off days which may intervene between two PLs should not be counted as leave.

Regards, Madhu.T.K