By dedicating himself entirely to the work he loves, a company employee has the right to count on reciprocal respect from his employer. Anyone who has exceeded their personal plan of duties or worked overtime has the right to receive compensation for this wasted time and labor resources.
How to negotiate with your boss and avoid problems in taking an extra day off? How to write an application for half a day off correctly so that the document takes into account the overtime?
Time off concept
What is time off?
The concept of time off was not officially established in labor legislation. However, there is wording on the registration of an additional day off or several hours for previously worked time. It was customary to call it time off.
Any employee has the right to refuse to exceed the plan for a working day, week or month, unless otherwise agreed in the employment contract.
For example, some companies have a clearly established number of working hours, which the new employee was informed about during the interview. At another enterprise, the documents clearly indicate irregular working hours.
If in the first case the employee can refuse unnecessary responsibilities, then in the second he will have to obey the manager. In both cases, he has the right to demand compensation.
As a rule, employees most often opt for monetary compensation. A work shift on a weekend or holiday must be paid twice as much. However, the organization can verbally stipulate that overtime hours will be “thanked” with the same amount of free time.
Another thing is that for a few hours of work on a weekend or holiday, the employer must provide the subordinate with a full day off.
If additional hours were worked on a weekday, then you can only use this accumulated time and not a minute more.
At some enterprises, it is customary to call time off any working day that, for certain reasons, becomes a day off for a particular employee. For example, if he took one day as vacation or without pay.
But most often, time off is the time allocated to the employee for previous overtime.
Time off for vacation, sample application
In agreement with the head of the organization and with his permission, the employee must write an application for future days off with their deduction from the main paid leave. The employee must submit the written document to the boss for approval, and then transfer it to the personnel department.
After writing the document, you should ask the employer to sign and date it, which is the basis for receiving future days off. Next, the employee must submit the signed sample document to the HR department in order to calculate the number of allotted days.
Rules for granting time off
You must submit an application for time off.
It should be noted that both minor employees and pregnant women and mothers whose children are currently under three years old cannot be involved in work outside of normal working hours. The remaining categories may be subject to additional workload, such as:
- working more than the established hourly rate per day;
- working on a holiday or day off;
- fulfilling not only one’s own, but also other people’s responsibilities (substituting for a sick colleague).
There are several types of time off that the employer is required to provide in accordance with the provisions of the labor code. These are days off on the occasion of a wedding, the birth of a child or the death of close relatives. Time off is also due if the employee has undergone a blood donation procedure.
In total, the period of leave cannot last more than five days. Otherwise, this will negatively affect your work experience, and the employer may even offer to go on leave without pay. Therefore, employees most often take short days off to cover previously worked time.
Some enterprises also practice providing time off in advance. That is, the employee goes on his short-term paid vacation, however, he undertakes to work overtime at the first request. The law does not stipulate such a procedure for providing time off, so the employer can do this only in the conditions of a trusting relationship with his subordinates.
Time off must be documented on paper and approved not only by superiors, but also by the immediate supervisor.
The application must be submitted three days before the desired day off so that the order is actually issued.
It is not often in organizations that such statements are not carried out through the personnel department - this is done, again, through a verbal agreement with the employee.
Article 113 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation states that work on weekends and holidays can be permitted only in exceptional cases and with the written consent of the employee. The employer must also issue an order under his signature justifying the need to work on a day off.
Application for time off at your own expense
It should be noted that in labor legislation such terms as time off and day off at one’s own expense are absent. They are replaced by the concept of leave without pay. But the above concepts are used in everyday life and they are also written in the application.
There are two types of time off:
- Time off that a person can receive without the consent of the employer at a time convenient to him for working on a holiday or day off.
- Time off that requires management consent.
The Labor Code also allows employees to take vacations at their own expense upon the occurrence of certain cases: marriage registration, death of a family member, etc. He also determines how many days you can take at your own expense in these cases. The minimum duration is five days, but the employer in its local regulations can provide for a longer duration. The employee is not required to take these vacations, and if he is forced to write an application at his own expense, it will be illegal.
What should be included in the application structure
Like any other document at work, an application for time off must begin with a header that indicates the position and initials of the boss, the name of the company, as well as the position and initials of the employee. After the word “statement” comes the text itself.
The author must indicate how many hours and on what day he will need to leave, and then indicate on what day and at what time he worked overtime or went on a holiday or weekend. Having substantiated the request, the employee signs and indicates the current date. Then he checks with his immediate supervisor.
Application form at your own expense
The application form is free at your own expense and is not regulated in any way by law. But at the same time, it must contain the mandatory details of all applications:
- Full name and position of the manager;
- Full name and position of the employee;
- Date and signature of the author of the application.
The text of the application itself will depend on the basis on which the leave is taken and what its duration is.
Application for a day off at your own expense
Despite the fact that the text is written in free form, in practice, office work has developed certain formulations that the statement should contain:
- Please provide a day at your own expense;
- Please allow me to take time off at my own expense.
In the case when a day off is needed, simply indicate the desired date or dates.
Application for half a day at your own expense: sample
In the case when he wants to take only part of the day, he must indicate in the application the time period for which he will be absent:
- Please give me time off from 13:00 to 18:00;
- Please give me time off for the first half of the working day, etc.
You can also ask in your application for one full day and half of the other:
I ask you to provide leave at your own expense on 01/23/2018 and from 9.00 to 12.00 on 01.24.2018. The employee must sign and date the application.
Time off is given to a person on the basis of a written application, which can be drawn up in free form. An application for a day at your own expense must have an executive visa. As a rule, an order must be drawn up based on the application. But in some cases, as a result of an agreement between the employee and the employer, the order is not drawn up; accordingly, this is also not reflected in the report card, although this will be at odds with what labor legislation says.
Reasons for time off
You won’t be able to just take time off - practice shows that usually an employee is required to either work an additional day off in advance or subsequently, or take time off towards a future vacation or as leave without pay.
In some cases, due to operational necessity, management may deny an employee an additional day off, and this will not be a violation of the law - time off is granted only with the mutual consent of both parties.
It is also worth remembering that those employees who have worked at this enterprise for less than 6 months are not entitled to time off at all.
At the same time, there is a category of employees who can take time off at any time without waiting for management approval.
Help-call No. (***) is attached.
The number of days of study leave for each category of students is determined by Labor Code Article 173. A call for a session or state exams, a diploma must be attached.
A part-time worker has the right to request study leave only at the main place of employment (LC Article 287).
What to do if you refuse
There are cases when time off is mandatory. This:
- When it is given as compensation for overtime or for working on a day off.
- Donors for blood donation.
- For Wedding.
- For ritual events.
If you are refused in one of these cases, you have the opportunity to appeal the management’s decision, but this will not affect the time off for several hours of the current day. When registering at your own expense, the decision is made only by the administration, and everything depends on the goodwill of management.
Worked on Saturday, October 24, 2015, on duty in the workshop.” Sample of the second text: “Please give me a day off on November 1, 2015 on account of the next vacation.” Third text: “Please provide me with a day without pay on November 1, 2015 for (reason).”
- The applicant's signature must be located on the right under the text, the number on the left.
Take time off from work part-time
Issues of this kind are easily resolved in small private companies, where the employee often reaches a verbal agreement with the employer to provide a break from work. In this case, the employee undertakes to work the hours that the employer allocated to him at another time. For example, if there is a need to perform overtime work.
If an employee needs a short time to resolve his issues, then it is not recommended to write an application for 2 hours to get a day off, moreover, without saving wages due to inexpediency. The best option in such a situation is to negotiate with management to obtain the employer's permission.
An employee may leave the workplace if he receives the approval of his immediate supervisor. If necessary, he coordinates his actions with senior management. Although often such an action is not necessary to carry out, because the issue of several hours of work can be decided personally by virtue of his official rights.
In enterprises with hourly wages, management may let the employee go for some time, for example, 4 hours. At the same time, he has the right to subtract the hours of absence of the employee from the total time recorded in the time sheet, calculating his wages. But it is better for the employee to take a day off for half the working day, having received permission from the employer.
At any enterprise, absence from work must be properly documented in order to avoid offenses. According to generally accepted rules, it is reflected in the working time sheet, so it is in it that time off for several hours is recorded. The employee must submit an application to the employer to be granted leave with or without pay.
At the same time, in accordance with the provisions of labor law, the organizational and legal form does not matter, because the preparation of documentation in all organizations is similar. It implements the interests and rights of the applicant regarding his work activity.
Structure
The application is written on plain white A-4 paper in the employee’s own handwriting. It is signed by the employee, endorsed by the head of the enterprise, and then transferred to the personnel department for issuing an order. In some cases, it can be done orally if the employer does not have any complaints.
The application form for time off on the following grounds is the same:
- for overworking hours;
- on account of paid leave;
- leave without pay.
The fundamental difference lies in their content and wording of the text.
The form for writing the application must comply with the requirements of personnel records management, although there is no form approved by labor law. It is written in any form. In the upper right corner of the sheet the addressee, his position, and personal data are written down. Below are the personal details of the applicant, structural unit, position or profession.
READ MORE: Administrative fine: accounting entries
The first thing we must understand is that the employer (HR officer) does not officially reflect the time off for overtime (and maybe in advance for future overtime), although according to the labor law he must keep correct records of working hours. But why does the employer do this?
Yes, very simple. The legislation has so confused employers that any step beyond the legally established working week in the direction of excess is overtime. But overtime requires certain procedures - an order, motivation, justification, and most often the consent of the trade union, if there is one at the enterprise or institution.
But no one canceled the established working time limit for a week or a month. This means that overtime must be paid either at an increased rate or given legal time off. (For excess time worked, by the way, the employee is supposed to be provided with compensation (time off) within two weeks).
And here, all the rules about the length of the working week, the intervals between shifts, weeks, the number of working days in a week begin to float. And why does the employer need this, when no matter what you do, you won’t please the inspectors? And will you receive a fine for violating some paragraph of the labor code? This is why employers do not reflect overtime on the time sheet, but give time off for overtime, which the employee often has to beg from the employer.
Why write a statement here? Can't you just ask: let me go after lunch or tomorrow, and that's the end of it? It's possible, but not necessary. Let’s imagine a situation where an employee received a day off in this way. But nothing lasts forever under the moon, a man was walking down the street and twisted or broke his leg. Injury? Yes.
Production? No. But you can turn the question around so that it happened during work. After all, everything is obvious - there is an “eight” on the report card, and an arrogant employee will drag the employer through the courts. Or during time off, the employee intentionally or unwittingly committed a crime. Here is the employee's statement in a safe or desk drawer and will leave traces of where the applicant actually was. So, you need to write an application for leave for half a day, a day, an hour. That's what time off is.
Then it remains to find out how to write an application for time off. You are already grinning, you can see everything in the picture above. But an attentive reader noticed that there is no processing date, and this is correct. There is no need to bind the employer with inconvenient facts that you actually worked on such and such a date, or sat at work late, but this was not reflected in the report card. (Next, go to the next page, numbering below)
Any person may have an urgent need for one day free from work, when they need to immediately resolve some personal issues. The term “time off”, which is colloquial, in the Labor Code can be deciphered as follows:
- administrative leave for 1 day;
- not using one day from the next vacation, upcoming or “time off”;
- missing a day worked on a day off.
In any case, it is necessary to notify the employer in writing and obtain his positive resolution.
The application form is standard:
- “header” on the right edge, containing the addressee of the application and the applicant’s data;
- the title of the document “application” located in the middle of the sheet;
- text where you need to provide the date and reason for future time off;
- The filing date is indicated below and the applicant’s personal signature with a transcript is placed.
To the General Director of Niva LLC Abdullin I.I. from sales manager Lukoshkin V.Yu.
STATEMENT
I ask you to give me time off at my own expense on 04/28/2017 for personal reasons.
April 25, 2021 /Lukoshkin/ V.Yu. Lukoshkin
It happens that employees are forced to work on a weekend or holiday in accordance with production needs, or to exceed the work schedule established for them. If an employee already has overtime, he could verbally agree in advance with his superiors when exactly it will be compensated with rest.
To the General Director of Asgard LLC Petrashevsky Anatoly Petrovich from the caretaker Leonid Iosifovich Otrivinov
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STATEMENT
I ask you to provide me with a day of rest on March 25, 2021 for the time previously worked on 01/01/2017.
March 20, 2021 /Otrivinov/ L.I. Otrivinov
If the employer does not mind, and production needs are not affected, the employee can ask for one or several days of rest, which can subsequently be “bited off” from the annual paid leave due. You can also use this right if there are unused days left on your vacation that has already been taken off.
ATTENTION! It is within the power of the manager not to agree to such time off. He has every right to do this. since such days of rest are provided only by agreement of the parties. the exception, as always, is for preferential categories of employees.
To the General Director of Inspiration LLC, Polina Konstantinovna Zarenkova, from purchasing manager Anna Valerievna Rozanova
STATEMENT
Please provide me with additional days off on March 10 and 11, 2017 as part of my regular annual paid leave.
March 5, 2021 /Rozanova/ A.V. Rozanova
The procedure for transfer at the will of the employer
The transition to part-time work at the will of the employer is almost identical to how it occurs if such a desire comes from a subordinate.
However, there is one important difference that cannot be ignored: the employer is obliged to notify the employee at least two months before the event itself, strictly in writing.
If the employee is against it, he must put a corresponding mark on the notice. In this case, management must provide him with a choice of available jobs within the company, and if the employee does not agree to them, or there are none, he may be fired.
Who does the employer have the right to refuse and who does not?
The employee is transferred for a shorter period of time at the initiative of both the company and the employee himself or by agreement of both parties. In accordance with Article 93 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, the following categories of workers have the right to transfer to shortened working hours:
- pregnant women;
- parents, guardians, trustees of disabled children under 18 years of age or children under 14 years of age;
- citizens caring for sick relatives based on a medical certificate.
In these cases, the employer does not have the right to refuse the employee.
In other cases, the employer and employee agree to establish a shorter time by agreement of the parties.
Sample application for part-time employment
The first step is writing an application. It is addressed to the first person of the company.
An application for a part-time job (a sample can be downloaded below) must contain the following items:
- full name of the company, employee details;
- a clearly expressed desire for employment;
- requirement to set a partial schedule.
Here you will find the application form.
Picture of the document for reference:
Example below:
Does the employer have the right to refuse transfer?
In most cases, the transfer of an employee to part-time work requires mutual voluntary consent of the parties, but there are some cases when the employer is obliged to transfer a subordinate, even against his own will. This applies to:
- pregnant women,
- persons caring for sick relatives,
- single parents of children under 14 years of age or under 18 if the child is disabled.
Of course, all these cases must have documentary evidence.
Reflection of time off in personnel and accounting
To properly register additional short-term vacations, the enterprise must have direct interaction between human resources and accounting services. In any case, the basis for all operations is the order for the enterprise.
If an agreement between the employee and the employer exists in advance, then the order immediately reflects the essence of the issue, for example, to provide the employee with one additional day off due to going out after hours.
The employee fills out an application for overtime work, and the accounting department acts according to the standard scheme, paying for the work at an increased rate.
In most cases, time off is required unexpectedly due to various circumstances.
If an employee needs half a day to resolve issues related to the birth of a child, a funeral or a wedding, then there is no need to indicate the dates of previously worked time.
Even if a team has a trusting relationship between all its members, a statement regarding any fact of absence of an employee from the workplace must be drawn up.
Otherwise, if an employee on undocumented leave somehow gets into an accident and causes damage to his health, formally this will be considered a work-related injury, and then problems will arise not only for him, but for all bosses.
Is it possible to take a day off for half a day, a few hours?
An employee can take time off from the employer for half a working day or for several hours. However, such a vacation can be arranged in a free form or in a form established by the enterprise. The legislation provides for any rest periods in days, so the employer allows a few hours off in accordance with internal regulations. Often, at an informal level, such time of absence is not formalized in any way. Or the employee draws up a statement about the need to be absent from the workplace, but only for the peace of mind of the employer.
As a result, it is allowed to receive additional days of rest on account of annual paid leave. However, the procedure must be completed properly. To do this, an application is drawn up according to the sample or in the form established by the enterprise. The employer will decide on his own whether to take it into account or leave it to ensure his own safety. In the first case, he will need to pay vacation pay. In the second case, the application remains with the manager, and the employee’s annual rest period will be reduced by the required number of days.
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What to pay attention to when making an application
The legislator has not provided any unified forms for writing an application, so it can be written in any form or according to a template existing within the company. The main thing is that the structure of the form complies with the rules of office work, and the text complies with the norms of the Russian language.
First, the statement says “header”:
- the addressee is indicated, i.e. the name of the organization in which the employee works, as well as the position, last name, first name and patronymic of the manager in whose name the document is drawn up.
- Then enter the position, the name of the structural unit, and the full name of the employee.
Below, in the middle of the line, the word “Statement” is written.
The main part of the document should include a request to switch to part-time work, the date from which the employee would like to switch to a new schedule, as well as the reasons.
If there are any additional papers that could confirm the need to switch to new working conditions, they need to be noted in the application form as a separate item, as an appendix (this could be some kind of certificate, notification, etc.).
Legislative confusion
The lack of a definition of time off in the modern Labor Code, in practice, leads the employer to an ambiguous interpretation of the norms. Especially if the question concerns an employee’s application for an individual short-term break (time off) for several hours.
Nuances arise in cases where an employee needs to recalculate working hours, provide paid time off due to overtime, and other options.
If we are talking about a day off that the employee wishes to receive through vacation, or an additional one, including at his own expense, then in such cases the employer is guided by the norms of the law. For hourly leave (for example, half a day off for previously worked time), there are no instructions, and registration and rationing are carried out according to several schemes.
In any case, the basis for making a decision is the employee’s statement. As a result of the review, an order may be issued for the enterprise or another document regulating the reflection of such actions in accounting.
