Can vacation begin on a day off, and what happens if a public holiday falls on vacation?

Author of the article: Yulia Kaysina Last modified: January 2021 97061

The Labor Code guarantees the right to annual paid leave, which is measured in calendar days. This means that it includes both working days and weekends (excluding non-working holidays). In practice, vacation usually begins on weekdays, but in some cases it becomes necessary to take vacation from the weekend. What should the employee, HR officer and accountant pay attention to, and is it possible to take vacation only on weekends?

General provisions

The standard vacation period according to labor legislation is 28 days. For some categories of employees it increases. The right to registration arises after 6 months of continuous work.

Additional features include:

rest for hired workers is provided in strict accordance with the developed and approved schedule. By prior agreement with the employer, changes can be made to it;
When exactly it is necessary to rest, each employee is notified with a personal signature;
If you wish, you can break paid rest days into parts - for example, 14 days in the fall and the same number at other times of the year. In theory, you can even take 1 day of rest, but in practice this is not advisable;
It is prohibited to receive compensation in exchange for paid days not taken off. The only exception is dismissal;
vacation cannot be transferred to the next reporting calendar year.

The moment of going on paid leave is pre-agreed with the employer and direct supervisor. In practice, the best option is the first working day after the weekend.

Vacation without days off

Many employees are concerned about whether they have the right to take vacation without days off. Such excitement is quite understandable - with the help of this scheme you can significantly increase your rest periods. However, here it is necessary to take into account a number of important rules and some nuances, in particular:

The standard length of a regular vacation is 28 days. An employee has the right to make an independent decision about whether he will take all the leave at once or divide it into several parts.
If an employee wishes to split his vacation, he needs to remember one more important rule. One part of the vacation period must still be at least 14 days. That is, the employee will not be able to divide his vacation, for example, into three parts.
As for the remaining rest days, they can be used by the employee at his own discretion. In particular, if desired, he can actually split the remaining rest period into several parts. However, it is advisable to discuss this issue with the employer in advance. Often managers do not want an employee to constantly take 2-3 days of vacation.

If the employer does not mind, the employee will be able to implement his own idea regarding taking a vacation without days off. For example, he can take two 4-day periods, from Monday to Friday. If we take into account weekends, it turns out that the employee will be able to take two more full weeks of rest. In addition, he will still have unused vacation days.

As for the procedure for applying for leave in parts, it will take place according to the standard scheme, in accordance with the current rules. The basis for granting such a vacation period will be the main document, namely, a personal statement drawn up in advance by the employee. In it, he indicates all the important information - the exact duration of the vacation period, information regarding its start and end dates, etc.

If you apply on the weekend

If there is a five-day work schedule, vacation begins on Saturday or Sunday. Often specialists ignore this opportunity due to lack of expediency - this is already a weekend that can be used at will. However, many people want to go away for a long weekend these days.

This may be due to the following reasons:

vacation pay was transferred ahead of schedule. The law requires that they be issued to the vacationer no later than 3 days before leaving for vacation. For example, if the actual withdrawal falls on Monday, then the money must be issued on Thursday. If you indicate the first day of vacation on Saturday in your application, the funds will be transferred on Tuesday. Sometimes this plays a key role when organizing a trip to resorts;
The organization practices calling employees to work on weekends. Despite the fact that the law states that employees have the right to go on weekends, and not an obligation, this is voluntarily compulsory, and refusal can lead to unpleasant consequences. It is for this reason that many people start their vacation on the weekend;
the remaining number of non-vacation days does not exceed 2. Many employees prefer to take that many days off over the weekend in order to continue working. There are often situations when there is no replacement, which is why employers ask specialists to give him time off in this way.

In each specific situation, other reasons may arise. For example, sometimes you need to go to work by a specific date, which entails the need to select the start of a long weekend.

Employers do not have the right to force employees to write an application for leave from a day off. This is only a workers' right, not an obligation.

Procedure for obtaining leave

Vacation is given in calendar days and lasts 28 days.
The annual vacation schedule is formed during the previous year. It is usually believed that an employee should go on vacation according to the approved procedure, but if he has special reasons, then he can miss this vacation. If an employee has not taken vacation for two years, this will be a violation of the Labor Code. In practice, it is possible that an employee does not go on vacation for many years. In this case, he will receive payment for unused time when calculating during dismissal.

In the latter case, he must rest at the earliest opportunity, but if he does not do so, the leave must eventually be paid. However, this can only be done during the dismissal process.

Employee suggestions are collected to create a schedule. After all documents have been received, a schedule according to which vacations will be given is drawn up and approved. The final decision is made by the boss, taking into account the opinion of the trade union organization of the enterprise.

It should be noted that you can take your entire vacation at once, but you can divide it into several parts. The breakdown method may define periods to have slightly more or fewer days off. The law requires that one part of the division be 14 days or more.

In order for an employee to be able to decide what vacation period he is going to count on, he should use a calendar when planning, which indicates which dates are included in the planned vacation period.

The schedule is completed no later than 14 days before the New Year holidays. If such a schedule exists, it has the force of law for both the manager and employees. However, changes to it are possible, but only with the consent of the boss.

At the same time, when there are 14 days left before the start of the vacation, the employer is obliged to remind the employee in writing that he will soon have vacation time.

When do you take leave from a public holiday?

In addition to calendar days of rest, the law provides for holidays. The main difference is that there is no payment for them, but the opportunity to extend the vacation for their number.

If a worker works on a staggered schedule and cannot rest on holidays, they are not taken into account during the next vacation. It is for this reason that it is not advisable to draw up an application on a holiday, since in fact it will be excluded from the calculation of vacation payments.

Despite this, in theory this is not prohibited by the legislation of the Russian Federation, for example, the accrual of funds ahead of schedule. In addition, taking a break from the holiday may seem like a sensible decision if a person is scheduled to go to work.

Application for weekend leave

Over the past many years, the application has indeed been the main document on the basis of which the employer granted legal leave to his subordinates. However, recent changes in modern standards have shown that this document has now almost completely lost its significance.

As you know, employees are now provided with their allotted vacations on the basis of a document such as a pre-drawn schedule. It is an official document in which information is entered about absolutely each employee, as well as about the period of his future vacation. The schedule must be drawn up by the employer at the end of each year for the next annual period.

As soon as the deadline for a particular employee to go on vacation approaches, the employer will need to prepare in advance an official notification to the subordinate about the imminent start of the vacation period.

As for situations in which an application is still required, this primarily includes cases of rescheduling vacation. Every employee has the right to change the previously specified time frame, but this issue will still need to be discussed with the employer first. If the boss has no objections to this matter, the manager draws up a corresponding order.

Paid days only on weekends

Often, unscrupulous employers deny their staff or individual specialists the right to vacation. Often the reason can be a simple lack of qualified personnel, and going on vacation can negatively affect the future work process.

Many employers ask you to write a corresponding vacation application exclusively on weekends:

according to the approved schedule;
or on Saturday and Sunday.

For these days, workers receive the required accruals, but the norms of labor legislation in the field of recreation are violated. According to the legislation of the Russian Federation, vacation and continuous rest (weekly) are types of rest, and combining them on a regular basis entails an increase in working hours throughout the reporting calendar year, which is why there is no opportunity to fully relax and gain strength.

This contradiction is explained in detail by the Letter from the Ministry of Labor, which states that there are no prohibitions on providing paid days of rest if they fall on weekends or holidays. At the same time, providing paid days only on weekends violates Russian legislation.

Letters from the Ministry of Labor do not relate to legislative norms, however, it is strongly recommended to adhere to the existing instructions in order to eliminate the possibility of administrative liability.

Responsibility for vacation on weekends only

Without exception, all employers who violate the requirements of labor legislation and force their subordinates to take vacation only on weekends are subject to administrative liability.

It is expressed in the form of a fine of the established amount:

in relation to authorized responsible persons for providing vacations to hired staff - up to 5 thousand rubles;
for individual entrepreneurs – up to 5 thousand rubles;
for legal entities (companies as a whole) – up to 50 thousand rubles.

In the event of a repeated violation of labor legislation, the following is provided:

increased amount of penalties;
disqualification for up to 3 years.

Increased fines are as follows:

in relation to authorized responsible persons for providing vacations to hired staff - up to 20 thousand rubles;
for individual entrepreneurs – up to 20 thousand rubles;
for legal entities (companies as a whole) – up to 70 thousand rubles.

It is for this reason that it is advisable to comply with federal legislation in order to avoid unpleasant consequences.

Fines for violation of workers' rights

Article 5.27 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation provides for administrative penalties for employers for violating labor and labor protection legislation. The fine is:

for officials - from 1,000 to 5,000 rubles;
for individual entrepreneurs - from 1,000 to 5,000 rubles;
for organizations - from 30,000 to 50,000 rubles.

This is exactly the fine that awaits an employer who forces employees to take additional vacation days on weekends.

Legal documents

Article 125 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation
Article 115 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation
Article 372 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation
Article 123 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation
Article 5.27 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation

Vacation registration procedure

Regardless of which day the vacation begins, its registration is carried out according to the standard algorithm, and there are no special features.

An officially employed employee must compile a properly appropriate application and indicate in it:

full initials;
position held;
date of departure for annual paid leave;
the established duration of vacation in strict accordance with the established vacation schedule within the company;
date of compilation and personal signature.

From the point of view of Russian legislation, the actual day of retirement is determined in a standard way - by the total number of days. The exception is those that fall on holidays. If there is room for them, they are automatically extended, usually by 1 day.

According to the completed application, the employer issues an Order, which becomes the basis for issuing vacation pay. Additionally, information is entered into the employee’s personal card.

In case of ignoring the established rules for registering leave, a fine in the prescribed amount will be imposed on the employer and officials.

Design details

The procedure for preparing vacation documents at an enterprise, when taking into account holidays that fall within the vacation period, is fundamentally no different from other similar situations.
You need to prepare a sample order to provide an employee with leave that includes a holiday. Now it will be enough to apply the prepared template, entering the employee’s personal data there.

Another important issue that needs to be addressed is how to properly account for regional holidays. The authorities of the regions of the Russian Federation establish additional days of rest; in order to properly prepare documents, you need to know the procedure for accounting for them when registering vacations.

The law does not prohibit employees from taking vacation, the first days of which will be non-working holidays or weekends. However, you need to remember that annual rest days are paid, and this increases the wage fund of the enterprise.

If the starting date from the order falls on a holiday on which they do not work, then the vacation will be longer for that day. This rule applies when the document indicates the number of vacation days. If the start and end dates of the period are specified, then the holiday will not be taken into account as part of the rest days and the number of days of vacation provided will decrease by one.

When the rest period begins on a non-holiday day off, the registration is carried out in the usual way.

According to the law, if a holiday coincides with a weekend, then the first working day after it becomes a day off. If the vacation begins with it, the employee loses this day off.

Last changes

In 2021, the standard procedure for documenting vacation and accruing vacation pay continues to apply. There are no plans for any changes in the near future.

Documenting your vacation is a key step. If violations are detected on the part of employers, the authorized state supervisory body has the right to bring the responsible persons to administrative liability. To avoid fines, it is enough to adhere to the established norms of Russian legislation.

If your vacation falls on a weekend

Sometimes, when applying for leave, employees indicate the first start date of the rest period, which falls on a weekend. Many employers have a very negative attitude towards this state of affairs and are in a hurry to force employees to rewrite a previously created application. However, it should be noted that current legislation does not prohibit this. If the start of your vacation falls on the weekend, this state of affairs is by no means a violation of established norms.

As you know, official non-working days are always included in the vacation period. Moreover, they are subject to mandatory payment in the standard manner, based on the employee’s average earnings, as well as other additional indicators.

If we talk about this type of leave, such as administrative leave, it should be noted that weekends should not be included in it. The provision of such leave is also carried out according to the standard scheme. The main feature will be the fact that, in most cases, it is issued on the initiative of the employees themselves. The reasons for this can be a variety of circumstances, for example, the need for an urgent trip to another city, family problems, etc.

Vacation. Are Saturdays and Sundays included? Comments on Articles 115 and 125 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation

This information is not just interesting - it is important for asserting the employee’s rights to rest according to the law! I was faced with the impenetrable and groundless obstinacy of the accounting department regarding the calculation of the number of days of the second (remaining) part of the vacation. Briefly about the situation: 14 days of continuous calendar leave have been used. Another 4 days were taken separately. As a result, the total number of calendar days used is 18, 10 remain to be used. As a normal person, I want to split the remaining vacation - 5 + 5 working days, naturally, throwing out weekends (the law does not prohibit me from doing this). Accounting assures me that I only have... 6 (working?!?!?!) days left. To my question - “What regulatory documents is this statement based on?” — they can’t say anything. Knowing that they were wrong, I did some digging online. As it turns out, this is a very pressing and painful issue for workers and employers. I found comments from lawyers - specialists in labor law, confirming that I was right. I think that this information will be useful to many - employees thinking about taking a vacation, as well as employees of the OK and accounting department. the link is a competent site on labor law. Below are excerpts of answers to questions from this site.

Can an employee take vacation from Monday to Friday, that is, not include weekends? Maybe if he indicates in the application that he takes part of the annual paid leave lasting five calendar days. The Labor Code of the Russian Federation (Article 125) allows for the division of leave into parts by agreement of the employee and the employer, while one of them must necessarily last at least 14 calendar days, and, of course, when calculating it, weekends will also be included. The number of parts into which the vacation can be divided is established by agreement of the parties, provided again that one part is at least 14 calendar days. link

Annual paid leave is 28 calendar days. How many of them must be Saturdays and Sundays? Is it possible to take vacation as follows: 14 calendar days (mandatory indivisible part according to the Labor Code), and the remaining 14 days are only Fridays or Mondays? Is there a rule that out of 28 calendar days there must be 8 days off? The Labor Code of the Russian Federation does not contain any restrictions regarding the division of vacation into parts. In accordance with Art. 125 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, the division of annual paid leave into parts is carried out by agreement between the employee and the employer. The only mandatory condition for such a division is that at least one of the parts of this leave must be at least 14 days. The remaining 14 days can be used by the employee in any order with the consent of the employer. link

Dear lawyers, please help me understand the following issue. I wrote an application for leave - from August 18, 2003. to August 29, 2003 for 12 calendar days. After the vacation, the HR department offered to sign me an order for my vacation, but for 14 calendar days, i.e. Saturday and Sunday were added to August 29 (August 30 and 31). The HR department justifies its actions by the Labor Code, arguing that out of 28 calendar days of vacation, 24 must be working days. Are the actions of the HR department legal? The logic of the HR department is difficult to understand. In accordance with Art. 115 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, which determines the duration of annual paid leave, annual basic paid leave is provided to employees for a duration of 28 calendar days. The Labor Code of the Russian Federation does not contain any instructions regarding how many of them should be calendar ones. The rule on calculating vacation in calendar days was contained in the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, which became invalid on February 1, 2002 due to the adoption of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation. On the other hand, in your case the vacation was divided into parts. Article 125 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation regulates this issue as follows. Firstly, when dividing vacation into parts, at least one of the parts of this vacation must be at least 14 calendar days. Secondly, all issues related to the division of vacation into parts, including the duration of each part of the vacation, are resolved by agreement with the employer. Therefore, you need to find out whether an agreement has been reached with the employer to provide leave lasting 12 calendar days (confirmation of the agreement can be a note on your application for leave indicating consent to its provision). If this mark is not present, and it is impossible to confirm the agreement in other ways, then it turns out that the employer’s order for 14 days of vacation expresses his disagreement. In any case, if you still fail to prove the existence of an agreement on 12 days of vacation, 2 days off that will be included in your vacation are subject to payment. link

In 2002, I go on vacation on August 5 (Monday) for a period of three weeks. I will go back to work on August 27th. The administration demands that you take out the entire vacation and take time off in parts. If I go back to work on August 27, how many vacation days will I have left? According to my calculations, it’s 5 days, but the administration thinks it’s 4 days. Because 31 falls on Saturday. Who is right? If earlier the Labor Code of the Russian Federation provided for the duration of the annual main leave of 24 working days, now, from February 1, 2002, the moment the Labor Code of the Russian Federation came into force, the duration of the annual leave is 28 calendar days (Article 115 of the Labor Code) Moreover, according to Part 1 of Art. . 125 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, by agreement between the employee and the employer, annual paid leave can be divided into parts, with the condition that at least one of the parts of this leave is at least 14 calendar days. The employer does not have the right to force an employee to take vacation in parts. Recall of an employee from vacation is permitted only with his consent. It is clear that Saturdays and Sundays are now included in the total number of vacation days and are paid. In your case, it turns out that from August 5 to August 27 you use 23 calendar days of vacation out of the allotted 28. Accordingly, you will have 5 calendar days left. You can take these 5 days at any time by agreement with your employer (administration). link

One employee took 14 days of vacation, then applied for vacation for 5 working days (Monday-Friday), and then for another 5 working days and then for 4 working days. Another employee went on vacation for 28 calendar days at once. It turns out that the second employee’s vacation turned out to be shorter than the first employee’s vacation due to the fact that his vacation period included weekends. Is this fair? In accordance with Article 115 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, annual basic paid leave is provided to employees for a duration of 28 calendar days. This duration remains the same in cases where such vacation is divided into parts, which is allowed by Article 125 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation (in this case, at least one part of the vacation must be at least 14 calendar days). Indeed, the length of leave may in practice vary greatly depending on how the remaining 14 calendar days are provided - with or without the inclusion of holidays. However, the procedure for accounting for vacation days, in particular, the inclusion of weekends following or preceding the working days on which the vacation falls, is not regulated by law. Therefore, it seems that one should be guided by Article 125 of the Labor Code, which provides that vacation can be divided into parts by agreement between the employee and the employer, and proceed from the fact that the procedure for recording vacation days should also be determined by agreement between the employee and the employer. link

At the enterprise, vacation is calculated in calendar days. If I take one day off as vacation on Friday, but 3 days are deducted from my vacation. Are the actions of the HR department legal? It all depends on the agreement between you and the employer on the number of vacation days provided. By virtue of Part 1 of Art. 125 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, division of annual paid leave into parts is allowed by agreement of the parties. The code does not establish restrictions on the number of parts or the number of days in individual parts of the vacation, with the exception of the minimum number of days in one of the parts in the amount of 14 calendar days. Based on your question, we are talking about providing part of the vacation that exceeds 14 calendar days. It should be noted that the Code also does not provide for the order of use of parts of annual leave. This issue is also resolved by agreement of the parties. If you asked for part of the leave lasting one day (for example, on Friday) and it was granted to you, then this means that there was an agreement to provide leave on Friday. As for the next two days, in the absence of an application for their provision on account of vacation, the employer’s order in this part cannot be considered legal. If these are your days off, then payment should also not be made. link

Please tell me, I wrote one application for leave with a request to provide me with three parts of leave: December 30, 2002, from January 4 to 5, 2003 and from January 8 to 10, 2003, and the general director signed this application. But the HR department says that this is not correct, and you need to write three different statements, because these are three different leaves and, accordingly, three different orders for leave. Am I required to rewrite the application? According to Article 125 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, annual paid leave can be divided into parts by agreement between the employee and the employer. Moreover, at least one part of this leave (for this working year) must be at least 14 days. The legislation does not contain other requirements related to the provision of annual leave in parts. Accordingly, having received the employer’s consent and recorded this fact (his signature on your application, issuance of the corresponding order), you, for your part, have fulfilled all the requirements provided for by law. In turn, the requirements of your OC are not based on the law. link

Holidays, vacations and financial gain

The vacation schedule is not always drawn up taking into account the employee’s opinion. Therefore, you can go on your next vacation in January or May, when there are many holidays. Employees often worry whether they will lose wages when holidays fall on vacation and whether they can take time off from a day off. Holidays, although not paid, must still be provided to the employee. Therefore, the number of holidays falling during the vacation period automatically extends it. Payment for vacation is also accrued in full. In this sense, the employee does not receive any benefit.

How to issue an order if holidays fall within the vacation period?

There are several nuances that some smart workers take advantage of. They plan to start their vacation on the weekend. It turns out that 28 days begin on Saturday, counting down 4 weeks. It turns out that the vacation ended on Friday, so there are still 2 days off ahead, so we get a continuous 30 days of rest.

According to the Labor Code, vacation can be divided into parts. A prerequisite is the fact that one of such parts should not be less than fourteen days. The rest can be distributed at your own discretion, including one day at a time. If an employee has accumulated a significant number of unused vacation days, then they can be issued for Saturdays and Sundays, if, for example, the employee himself wishes. This is financially beneficial, since vacation pay is paid and wages are calculated in full.

The lawyer will answer your questions in the comments to the article

Results

Thus, the vacation registration procedure must be carried out in strict accordance with the following rules:

Weekends that fall on vacation must be included in the total vacation period. Moreover, all of them are subject to payment in the standard manner.
If we talk about mandatory public holidays, things will be a little different. First of all, such days cannot be included in the total duration of the vacation period.
The main document on the basis of which the employee is granted the desired rest will always be the corresponding order from the authorities. The order, in turn, is formed on the basis of a previously drawn up and approved vacation schedule.
If an employee wishes to reschedule previously established vacation dates, he can do so. However, you first need to discuss this issue with the employer. In addition, he will also be able to divide his vacation into several parts, taking into account the current rules and requirements.