Navigating Unavoidable Leave Requests: How to Handle Short Notice and Holiday Conflicts

Leave Policies for Better Workflow

We have the following leave policies in our office to ensure better workflow:

1. Any casual leave (CL) or approved leave can only be permitted if requested at least three weeks in advance.

2. Leaves (planned or unplanned) are not allowed to precede or succeed any declared holiday or weekend. If taken, the combined holidays will also be considered leave and will be deducted from your leave balance.

Handling Unavoidable Leave Requests

What can be done if an employee requests unavoidable leave with less than three weeks' notice, and the leave falls between holidays? If we do not approve it, what issues may arise, and how should we handle this situation?

Factors Influencing Leave Approval

Generally, granting leave to an employee is directly relevant to the following factors:

1) Official exigencies, meaning the workload on hand can be handled by others on duty.
2) How crucial the leave is for an employee. For example, if he/she is sick or if it's for their own marriage or close relatives, friends, or colleagues.
3) Sometimes, a person requires immediate time off or leave after continuous hectic work.
4) Additionally, some important festivals, ceremonies to attend, etc. There are numerous reasons for leave requests.

Reasons for Denial of Leave

Denial of leave may occur due to the following reasons:

a) Work pressure and commitments that need to be fulfilled.
b) Shortage of staff on duty to make alternate arrangements at short notice.
c) Strained relationship with the reporting officer.
d) Habitual absenteeism.
e) Non-availability of leave credits, and so on.

Granting leave in normal circumstances is not a right. Therefore, not reporting to duty when leave is not granted constitutes a dereliction of duty and is considered indiscipline. However, obtaining prior approval for leave is the responsibility of the employee.

Impact of Leave Denial

While leave is not an entitlement, the denial of authorized leave negatively impacts individuals and the company's reputation. Leave plans can be considered for earned leave. Casual leave requirements often arise suddenly, and routine denial will harm morale and lead to absences.

Issues with Declared Holidays

The idea of not attaching declared holidays with other forms of leave is not a wise thought process. This will lead to employees coming up with excuses and repeat requests. The company needs to plan leave, have a standby for duties in each department, and be liberal with leave to the extent possible. Making leave difficult is not good and will ensure employee turnover.

Leave Policy Considerations

The leave policy cannot lose sight of the purpose for which it is provided. Various types of leaves like CL, SL, PL, and ML have distinct purposes, and the policy should aim at facilitating an employee to avail leave to meet genuine family/social commitments or personal sickness/pregnancy, etc. At the same time, the policy should also facilitate curbing the tendency of a very small number of employees who avail it as a matter of right without taking prior permission or at least immediate intimation. Refusal of leave in such cases is quite justified.

Advance Notice for Casual Leave

However, the policy of requiring three weeks' prior permission for CL is unjust as it is practically impossible to plan leave that far in advance. The general practice is to provide 1-2 days' advance intimation.

Treatment of Holidays During Leave

As for the treatment of holidays falling between the leave period and whether to prefix or suffix them, it is left to the company policy or governing legislation, if any. For instance, in Maharashtra under the Shops Act, intervening holidays and holidays at the beginning or end of the PL/CL are not counted as part of the leave.

In your current situation, please follow your rule/policy regarding the grant of leave and the treatment of holidays that join the leave period.

Regards, Vinayak Nagarkar HR Consultant

Leave Policy Queries

Qy:1. Any CL/Approved leaves can be permitted only if requested before 3 weeks.
Comments: It's not justifiable to impose a condition like '3 weeks' prior application. Of course, in some instances, it may be possible, such as marriages or planned outings for social gatherings. But not in every reason, such as sudden illness, accidents, or family/socially relevant events at short notice.

Qy.2. Leaves (planned/unplanned) are not allowed preceding or succeeding any holiday (declared)/weekends.
It's not a fiction, it's a fact that most employees opt to prefix or suffix holidays in continuation of planned or unplanned leave/weekends. Sometimes, human tendency is to avoid traveling during the daytime and instead prefer to travel or drive during nights to utilize daytime for their engagement. This is not a fault; after all, we would also like to take off and relax if possible. This should not be curbed or denied. Of course, if there are compelling commitments back at the office, such facilities can be avoided by conducive discussion with appropriate authorities.

Qy.3. If taken, the combined holidays will also be considered as leave and will be deducted from your leave balances.
Normally, intervening holidays during (in between) leave are counted as leave. There could be some establishments that allow these holidays not to be counted as leave. It depends, but prefixing and suffixing should be permitted.

Qy.4. What can be done if they request unavoidable leave before 3 weeks and ask for approval, and the leave falls between holidays?
As I said earlier, insisting on a 3-week advance application is not practical in all instances. Though prior approval may be imposed as a requirement, there should be room to accommodate emergencies and urgencies. Also, this criterion should be applied in cases of habitual nature and on a case-to-case basis.

Qy.5. If we didn't approve it, what will be the issue and how to handle this?
Your leave policy should clearly state what should be done for offenders. If you have your SO in vogue, there should be a clause to guide you on how to handle such circumstances.

Understanding Leave Management in Industrial Employment

All the friends above, with rich experience in the realm of Human Resource Management, particularly in the branch of industrial employment, have offered nice answers to all your queries. I think that I, as a person with little direct experience in leave management in such a sector contributing a great deal to the economy of a nation, would not be in a position to add anything more to their answers.

However, the undercurrent running through all your questions seems, of course, to me, that, in essence, is how to effectively discourage the tendency of taking leave in the minds of the employees only. Leave is a statutory employment benefit conferred on the working class irrespective of the status of employment. That's why it is classified into lapsable and non-lapsable leave, and even the encashment of lapsable leave is statutorily permitted for the contingency of termination of employment only.

Implementation of Leave Policies

When there is a rule for the grant of a particular benefit, a progressive employer should always find the ways and means to its implementation rather than its negation. Of course, the exigencies of work and the preventive checks on the tendency to misuse leave may be exceptions. But an exception cannot be a rule. For example, the rule prescribing a 3-week prior application for CL defeats the very purpose of the provision for it under the Leave Rules. Similarly, when a particular intervening day or a weekend day is declared as a holiday, what is the employer going to achieve by not allowing the employee to avail of such a holiday when he applies for it well in advance? The dictum that leave is a matter subject to prior approval of the employer has equally all the practical connotations underlying the dictum that leave cannot be claimed as a matter of right by the employee. The degree of compliance in leave matters should correspond to the degree of compliance in all other employment matters like overtime, incentives, bonus, etc.

Impact of Rigid Leave Policies

Any rigid approach by the employer, on the contrary, would certainly affect the morale of the employees and may even lead to more employee turnover in the long run as it could be a cause for work-life imbalance. A bottom-up approach involving the different functional heads in devising the leave policy of the organization can be of effective implementation without any heartburns.