How to Handle Weekends Between Half-Pay Leave and Restricted Holidays?

One of our employees has applied for half-pay leave for the period 31/07/2017 to 04/08/2017 and 7th August as RH. The employee is going abroad. 5th & 6th August are weekends. 7th August is a restricted holiday on account of Rakhi.

Under this situation, RH being suffixed after the weekend, can we ignore the weekend, or should it be counted in continuation with the period already applied? That is, should the half-pay leave applied for the period 31/07/2017 - 04/08/2017 be continued for 5th & 6th August, and thereafter permit RH to be suffixed?

Your clarification on the above would greatly help.

Dear Neeti,

In this kind of situation, the organization's leave policy plays a very crucial role. Normally, if the day off falls with a suffix and prefix, and leave then offs will be part of the leave only. Thus, you can treat the 5th and 6th as part of the continuation of leave.

Understanding Leave Policies

The term "leave" itself implies an authorized absence from work. Permission to prefix and suffix holidays to a stretch of leave depends upon the policy of the organization and the nature of the duties of the incumbent. A logical reason for permitting such a practice is based on the sheer convenience of both the employee and the organization. Naturally, the employer cannot ask the employee to report for duty on the expiry of his already sanctioned leave on a day which is a holiday for the entire organization.

Apart from suffixing the weekly off to a particular stretch of sanctioned leave, the post indicates the issue of clubbing a restricted holiday as well. Moreover, it is not clear whether an employee can avail of the weekly off despite his authorized absence for 6 days in the particular week. The very name would suggest the restricted nature of sanction to avail of such a holiday. Therefore, it is a matter of the discretion of the leave sanctioning authority, subject to the rules in force, for clubbing different kinds of leave at a stretch.

Thank you for the advice. But restricted holiday is as per the Government list. As per the rule, RH can be suffixed or prefixed to any paid leave. Thus, with this definition, the weekend should not be included in between two types of leaves, i.e., paid leave + weekend + RH.

Moreover, our organization works five days a week. As per CCS rules, all intervening holidays are counted while availing long spells of leave. However, in this case, it is only five days of the week followed by the weekend and then a restricted holiday as per the DOPT list.

I think it does not matter whether the holiday is government-ordered or given additionally by the employer. If a person is absent for whatever reason both before and after an official holiday, it will be counted as part of leave, especially where the sandwich rule is in force. Once this is added, the reason no longer matters. The employee should not have taken the half day knowing that the 2-3 days in the middle will be counted as leave.

However, there seems to be a discrepancy in the post. In order for the sandwich rule to apply, the employee must be on leave or absent both before and after the holiday in question.