Vacation for parents with many children in 2021

The right to additional leave for parents with many children by law

All types of benefits can be divided into two groups:

• federal (provided for on the territory of the entire state);
• regional (operate within one subject of the Federation and are compensated from the local budget).

Labor preferences are a category of social support that is available throughout Russia. The only requirement is for the family to obtain the status of having many children. To obtain privileges, the following circumstances must be present:

• cohabitation of parents and children (registration at the same address);
• raising at least three children who have not reached the age of 18 (the age of children is extended to 23 if they are undergoing full-time studies at universities or military service);
• presence of biological or legal relationship.

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Only one parent can apply for a beneficiary certificate without notifying the other. And this can only be done in the region where the family lives.

Annual leave for parents with many children, order of leave

Paid leave is provided annually to all categories of working citizens for a period of 28 days, including parents of large families (Articles 114,115,122 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation).

You can learn about how to arrange basic leave, calculate and pay vacation pay, and what points a company accountant should pay attention to in the article “Annual paid leave under the Labor Code - nuances.”

In the manner established by Art. 123 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, the employer is required to determine the order of employee vacations with a schedule that must be drawn up no later than 2 weeks before the start of the calendar year, in coordination with the trade union. The employee must be notified of the start of vacation no later than 2 weeks before the start. It is important for the HR department to familiarize employees personally.

Labor legislation provides mothers and fathers of large families with children under the age of 18 (previously - up to 12 years) with a preferential right to take annual leave in the summer or at another time convenient for them.

ATTENTION! As of March 20, 2021, the maximum age for children has changed - it has been raised to 18 years. Previously, employees with three or more children under the age of 12 were required to provide voluntary annual leave. Read more here.

That is, parents with many children will be able to rest during the period agreed with the employer, just like other employees of the work team.

Explanations from ConsultantPlus: According to the position of the Russian Ministry of Labor, the period and specific date for providing annual paid leave to such employees are determined at their request. To avoid violations of labor laws and pay for vacation on time, the employer has the right... See K+ for more details by receiving trial demo access to the system. It's free.

Paid and unpaid leave

Leave for parents with many children, according to the articles of the Labor Code, is granted on a general basis. That is, a working citizen has the right to choose independently in which month he wants to rest. The minimum duration of rest cannot be less than 28 days per full calendar year worked.

Paid additional leave for a parent with many children is not provided for by law: regardless of the number of minor children, paid days will not be provided. The standard duration of annual vacation will be 28 days. But there are exceptions to this rule. Namely:

1. Will of the employer. The company administration can independently assign additional days to vacation for large couples. Such a decision does not contradict the legislation and must necessarily be reflected in local regulations. As a rule, such a privilege applies to enterprises with high income, the budget of which can cover compensation for paid vacations.
2. Active participation of the trade union. Almost every company has a trade union organization, elected by the workers of a particular company and protecting their interests. Trade union representatives can enter into an agreement with the company's management to provide such benefits to employees.
3. Production conditions. This means that employees for whom such a right is directly guaranteed by the Labor Code can apply for more vacation time. These include teachers, kindergarten teachers, military personnel, as well as persons employed in hazardous and harmful production. This also applies to parents with many children.

ATTENTION! If additional leave for a mother and father of many children is issued at the request of the employer or at the request of the trade union committee, then the peculiarities of the production process are also taken into account. If the employee’s absence does not affect the company’s activities, the application for leave will be granted.

The vacation schedule, according to the general rule, is formed at the end of each calendar year. Taking into account the wishes of employees, the order in which vacation days are received is determined. Mothers and fathers from large families first of all choose the months when they want to retire. But this schedule only includes periods of compulsory leave. At the same time, there are categories of persons who may qualify for more leave without pay. These include:

• mother and father raising two or more children under 14 years of age;
• parents of a minor child with a disability.

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According to the provisions of the Labor Code, the employer is not obliged to provide the citizen with the specified two weeks of rest. It all depends on the workload of the production process and the potential consequences of the employee's absence from the workplace.

Providing additional leave for families with many children

The law provides that citizens with many children can apply exclusively for additional leave, which does not provide for monetary payment from the administration. The procedure for providing this type of vacation is as follows:

• the employee selects the period when he needs to rest and writes an appeal addressed to the employer. This should be done in advance;
• the employer signs such an application and submits it to the HR department for processing;
• After signing the order and familiarizing the worker with it, the employee has every right to stay at home for this period.

Among the important points that are provided for in Art. 263 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation regarding the provision of such breaks in work, it is necessary to highlight:

• This privilege can be used by parents raising two or more children who are under 1 year old at the time of writing the vacation application;
• The law does not prohibit parents from dividing this type of vacation into parts. The main thing is that its quantity does not exceed 14 calendar days;
• the employee independently decides when to take this type of vacation. And the employer has no right to refuse him this;
• such a break can be added to the planned (preferential) leave, provided at a time convenient for the worker.

Remember, parents with many children can only take additional vacations at their own expense. Moreover, such a vacation can be organized at any time convenient for them.

Additional days off for parents with many children

Another labor benefit that employed parents of large families can count on is receiving monthly days off (except for mandatory ones), during which full wages are retained.

ATTENTION! Every month, in addition to the mandatory days of rest, the parent claims four more days off.

In practice, the following features of the use of privileges must be taken into account:

• the benefit is available only to the mother or only to the father (if both spouses wish to take advantage of the preferences, then each will be able to claim only two additional days off);
• unused days off are not compensated and are not transferred to other months;
• Optional days off cannot be assigned during vacation.

To record the desired day as a day off and avoid punishment for absenteeism, the worker must submit a handwritten application addressed to the employer. The company administration cannot refuse to provide preferences.

We recommend reading: Rules for granting maternity leave for men

Features of providing leave to large families

Analyzing the labor legislation of the Russian Federation, we can come to the conclusion that certain benefits are still provided for parents with many children, which the latter may not be aware of.

However, the employee himself is required to initiate the receipt of benefits by submitting copies of his children’s birth certificates and some other documents to the enterprise’s HR department (we’ll talk about this a little later).

So, below we will consider in detail the right of large families to benefits relating to each type of leave.

Annual paid vacation

It is well known that the duration of annual leave in the Russian Federation should be 28 days (Article 115 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation).

Is a mother (father) with many children entitled to additional leave? If we talk about paid leave, then according to the Labor Code for employees who are parents of many children, the duration of leave does not increase.

The legislation of our country does not oblige employers to provide additional paid leave for mothers of large families . However, heads of organizations have the right to independently assign the above benefit.

Thus, the possibility of providing additional leave to parents with many children may be contained in the collective labor agreement of the enterprise.

Practice shows that when hiring, parents with many children should pay special attention to the collective agreement, since it is this that establishes additional guarantees for the company’s employees.

The good news is that parents with many children fall under the category of workers who can qualify for additional unpaid leave lasting no more than 14 days a year (Article 263 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation).

The employer does not have the right to refuse to provide additional unpaid leave. What conditions must be met in this case?

When an employee with many children claims the right to provide certain benefits, his children (at least two) under the age of 14 years or a disabled minor (under the age of 18) are taken into account. This rule is contained in Article 263 of the Labor Code.

When using additional days for vacation, parents with many children should consider the following points:

• the employee has the right to apply for additional leave to be added to the paid leave;
• An employee can use additional leave only when there is a need for it (in other words, this is not an obligation, but a right);
• if a parent with many children has not taken advantage of additional leave during the year, it cannot be transferred to the next year (Article 124 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation);
• An employee with many children can split the additional leave into several parts.

Additional days off

Parents with many children have the right to count on 4 additional days off, in addition to the norm provided for by law. Moreover, such additional days off are necessarily paid by the employer.

Let's consider the features of using additional days off:

1. Only one parent has the right to receive them (or divide four additional days off: 2 days off for one parent and 2 for the other).
2. Additional days off cannot be included in vacation or overlap with it.
3. If an employee with many children does not take advantage of additional days off, they are not paid in any way.
4. The number of days off is unchanged, regardless of the number of children in the family.

This benefit will be provided to the employee only if the appropriate application is submitted.

Rules for applying for additional leave

Features of registration of main and additional leave:

ATTENTION! You can divide the additional vacation, like the main time, into the desired parts. The first vacation period cannot be less than two weeks, and the citizen chooses the duration of each subsequent one independently.

Can they refuse to provide additional leave?

As noted above, the possibility of obtaining an additional period of rest for parents with many children is provided for, but not guaranteed. That is, the employer himself, based on the characteristics of the production process and the financial well-being of the company, determines whether the employee can qualify for rest. In practice, the most common reasons for refusal of longer leave are:

• lack of money to compensate for more paid time off;
• the right to receive such preferences is not provided for by local documents or an employment contract;
• violation of the efficiency of the enterprise in the absence of an employee.

Receipt of a refusal by the employer cannot be contested by the employee.

Recommended reading: How to write a vacation application?

Cash compensation instead of additional rest

As for compensation, no monetary payment is provided for unused days of optional rest. If an employee (parent of many children) has not taken advantage of his privilege for longer leave, then it will not be possible to transfer it to future periods.

To avoid potential disputes, it is better to clarify all issues when signing a work contract and display them in the text of the agreement. An employee can be sure that he will be able to take advantage of his vacation preferences only if this right is stated in the employment contract, as well as in the local regulatory documents of the enterprise.