Is It Fair to Call Emergency Leave Unscheduled? Exploring Legal Aspects of Leave Policies

I wanted to find out the legality of the given policy.

Leave Request Policy

All requests for leave must be made at least 48 hours in advance. Leaves longer than 2 days need to be requested at least 10 days in advance. Any leave request not meeting the above criteria will be considered unscheduled.

Emergency Situations

What if the person falls ill on the weekend or if any other emergency occurs? Is it legal to still consider it unscheduled because the policy states so?

I appreciate your help with this.

Hi, the above policy should be applicable for planned leaves only. For example, an employee applying for marriage leave or traveling to their native place should be aware of their leave requirements. In that case, the employee should be encouraged to apply for leave in advance. However, unplanned leaves such as sickness or the death of a close relative cannot be predicted, and HR cannot apply the same yardstick for such leaves. Planned leaves help the supervisor to maintain the work schedule, plan for replacements, etc.

Thank you.

Leave Policy and Holiday Consideration

Generally, if the leave is both prefixed and suffixed by a holiday/weekly off, then the holiday/weekly off is also considered as leave. But if it is either suffixed or prefixed, then that holiday is not considered as leave. For example, if a person has taken leave on Saturday and Monday, then Sunday (which is a weekly off) will also be considered as leave (3 days). However, if the 2 days leave is on Friday-Saturday or Monday-Tuesday, then Sunday is not added to the leave.