Official Holidays falling in paid and unpaid leave

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At the onset I wish to make clear that I don’t have any intention to twist the law to suit any purpose. My objective is just to understand the law so that I can claim my rights.

The best source is the respected Arab Times on which we can rely for any valuable advice. I just want to understand how much I should be paid in the below situation:

a) Date of Joining – May 1, 2016

b) Leave from July 3 to July 10, 2016 (Eid holidays fall in between)

c) Company deducted 7 days salary from my July salary considering the above period as unpaid leave (as I have not completed 9 months service).

Is it correct to deduct 7 days salary from monthly salary … i.e if the monthly salary is only KD 500, then salary paid was KD 500/26 x 19 days = KD 365.384 Only.

How much should I get as the July salary in the above scenario?

Name withheld

Answer: Before we calculate your salary for days you worked in the month of July, we will again publish the reply we gave earlier on the issue of official holidays falling in the paid annual leave and the unpaid leave.

It is very important to understand the different situations before coming to any conclusion.

When you take unpaid leave, you are not paid for the official holidays and weekends that fall within this leave.

In fact, even when you are on annual leave, you are not paid for these official holidays or weekends but there is a slight difference in both the situations.

Weekends and official holidays falling within the unpaid and paid leave are treated in two different ways. For the information of all our readers we will discuss both the situations.

According to the law, you are entitled to only 30 days paid leave.

The only benefit you have in this regard is that all the weekends and official holidays are added to you leave but you are not paid for these nor is any amount deducted from your salary for these holidays being added to your leave.

For example, when you take 30 days annual leave and four weekends plus three Eid holidays fall within those 30 days, you will be entitled to go home for 37 days.

But if the company wants you to take only a total of 30 days off, then you will have a balance of 7 days paid leave which you can avail later or add to your next annual leave.

In all cases, your annual leave salary will be calculated as follows : Monthly salary divided by 26 and then multiplied by your leave (total number of days after deducting the weekends and official holidays)

So, if the above case your sponsor allows you to go for 37 days (including the total 7 weekends and official holidays) then your leave salary will be monthly salary divided by 26 multiplied by 30.

But if you are given a total of 30 days off (including the total 7 weekends and official holidays) then your leave salary will be monthly salary divided by 26 multiplied by 23. And 7 days of your annual leave will remain in balance.

So, you can see that although you may get the extra days off, you don’t get any extra payment for these days. Things become worse when you take unpaid leave as all the weekends and official holidays that fall within these holidays are counted as part of the unpaid leave.

You neither get any extra days for these official off days nor are you paid for them. Now if you want to avail the official holidays or weekends in isolation whenever you want (even within the first 9 months) this becomes a totally different situation. Unless the company needs you (in which case it has to pay you overtime), you can leave the country for those days and go where ever you want.

Some companies don’t even require you to inform them of your plans but some do, so they can plan for any eventuality just in case they need your services and you are not available. Now coming to the calculation of your July salary, for which the correct method is as follows.

Please understand that calculations of monthly salary and paid annual leave salary are different :

Salary = KD 500 July = 31 days

Leave = 8 days (not 7 as Jul 3 to 10 is 8 days)

So you should get KD 500/31 x 23 (not 19) = KD 371

So, your pay will be deducted for the total number days you were away from the office on unpaid leave.

This news has been read 22714 times!

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