In accordance with the requirements of Article 123 of the Labor Code , each employer must draw up a vacation schedule annually. The document includes information about the vacation periods of all employees with whom employment contracts have been concluded. The schedule is binding on both the employee and the employer. It is in accordance with this that employees go on annual paid leave.
The document must be ready at least 2 weeks before the end of the previous year .
Briefly about the 2021 vacation schedule
By the end of the year, there is critically little time for everything. Use our diagram - it will tell you when to draw up a vacation schedule for 2021 and in what form, as well as with whom to coordinate it and who to familiarize with it.
You will find details on what to consider when drawing up and approving a vacation schedule in the following sections.
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Whose opinion should I take into account?
Employees' annual holidays are usually planned taking into account their opinions, although the employer has no such obligation. For obvious reasons, all wishes cannot be taken into account, especially in large organizations. But still, employers try to accommodate the team halfway whenever possible.
But the opinion of the trade union organization, if it is created, must be taken into account when drawing up the vacation schedule. There is an important nuance: it should be agreed only with the trade union that represents more than half of all employees.
Above we have given the basic rules for drawing up a document. Next, we propose to analyze this process step by step.
Why the schedule must be approved no later than December 17, 2021
This date is not accidental and was calculated according to the norms of Art. 123 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation - the vacation schedule for the next year is approved no later than 2 weeks before the start of the calendar year.
The calendar year, as we know, ends on December 31st. Let's count 2 weeks from this date and get the deadline no later than which the vacation schedule for 2021 must be approved:
If the employer does not have a timely approved schedule, he may be fined under Parts 1 and 2 of Art. 5.27 Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation (we will tell you more about fines below).
Only micro-enterprises that have refused to adopt local regulations, including the vacation schedule, may not approve the vacation schedule within the specified period. In this case, it is necessary to conclude a written agreement with the employee, indicating this in the appropriate clause of the employment contract on the standard form (clause 22 of the Standard Form of the Employment Contract, approved by Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation of August 27, 2016 No. 858). Such rules are provided for in Part 1 of Art. 309.1, Art. 309.2 Labor Code of the Russian Federation.
What to consider when planning vacations
The legislation does not require the issuance of an order (instruction) on drawing up a vacation schedule. However, in practice, especially when it comes to medium and large enterprises, such an administrative document is drawn up. This is explained simply. To create a schedule, you need to request information about planned vacation dates from each employee. It is clear that it is easier to collect such information in a decentralized manner, transferring the relevant functions to line managers. This is precisely why the order is issued. It indicates the persons responsible for collecting information about upcoming vacations of employees, as well as for preparing a summary document in form No. T-7, its approval by the trade union (if required) and submission for approval to the personnel department and the manager.
When planning vacations, you need to consider the following. The schedule must also include those employees whose employment contract expires in the next calendar year (letters from the Ministry of Labor dated 04/09/20 No. 14-2/B-395 and dated 03/27/20 No. 14-2/B-321 ). Leave of maternity leave is also included in the schedule, since the Labor Code does not contain any exceptions in this part.
But persons on parental leave may not be taken into account when drawing up the schedule if their parental leave falls within the entire next calendar year. Another category of workers whose information may not be included in the schedule is part-time workers. According to the rules of Article 286 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, the time of their annual leave from part-time work coincides with rest from their main job.
In addition to the annual basic paid vacations, the schedule must also include information about additional vacations to which the employee is entitled. In addition, vacations that were not used in the current and previous years should be reflected. Moreover, it is permissible to enter information about past vacation periods in any order, and not in chronological order (letter of Rostrud dated March 1, 2007 No. 473-6-0). For example, you can first provide unused vacation (or part of it) for last year, then vacation for the current year, and then vacation (or part of it) for the year before.
ATTENTION
Vacations without pay are not included in the schedule.
This follows from the Instructions for the use and completion of form No. T-7 (approved by Resolution of the State Statistics Committee dated 01/05/04 No. 1). They say that this form is used to reflect information about the time of distribution of annual paid leave. Create a staffing table using a ready-made template Try for free
Special categories of employees in the vacation schedule
In general, the employer has the right to disagree with the vacation dates chosen by employees and to regulate the process of granting vacations taking into account production needs in order to ensure continuous work technology.
However, there are categories of employees whose opinion on the vacation period the employer is obliged to take into account (part 3 of article 122, part 4 of article 123 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation). For example, the right to use vacation at a convenient time is available to:
- women before the start of maternity leave (paragraph 2, part 3, article 122 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation);
- parents with many children with children under 12 years of age (Article 262.2 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation);
- persons awarded the sign “Honorary Donor of Russia” (clause 1, part 1, 2, article 23 of the Law of July 20, 2012 No. 125-FZ, Appendix No. 7 to the Order of the Ministry of Health and Social Development of Russia of March 31, 2005 No. 246) and some other categories of workers .
The vacation period of such employees and the specific date are determined at their request (Letters of the Ministry of Labor dated 02.27.2020 No. 14-2/OOG-1439, dated 10.31.2019 No. 14-2/OOG-8456).
If an employer refuses to provide certain categories of employees with vacation at a time convenient for them or violates the vacation schedule, employees have every right to complain to the labor dispute commission or send an application to the court (Articles 382, 391 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation).
Rules for drawing up an order
Like any other order, this document today does not have a strictly established, unified template, so it can be drawn up in free form. Quite often, company employees use the old, familiar standard form or an internally developed template for writing an order (which must be approved in the organization’s accounting policies), but regardless of which option is chosen, the document must always contain a number of necessary information:
- First of all, this is the name of the company,
- date of document preparation,
- information about the official on whose behalf the order is written
- and his signature,
- as well as the actual content of the document
- and signatures of all employees mentioned in it.
In this case, the vacation schedule itself can be included in the order in “natural form” or indicated as an appendix (this is especially true when the schedule itself, due to the large number of employees of the enterprise, is a multi-page document).
There is no need to certify the order with the company’s seal, since it relates to the company’s internal documents; in addition, starting from 2016, legal entities have the full legal right not to use stamps and seals to endorse documents.
The order can be written either by hand (this method has been used extremely rarely lately), or printed on a computer, issued both on the organization’s letterhead (very convenient - you don’t need to fill in the details again) or on a regular A4 sheet. It is usually drawn up in one copy, which, after being reviewed and signed by all the persons mentioned in it, is transferred for storage to the archives of the enterprise, where it is kept for the time established for such documents.
Familiarization of employees with the vacation schedule
According to the norms of Art. 123 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, the vacation schedule is mandatory for the employer and employees. To comply with this requirement, both parties to the employment relationship must be familiar with this document in a timely manner.
There are no special rules in the law regarding familiarization of employees with the vacation schedule. Therefore, it does not matter in what form you received the signature of the employees - on a separate familiarization sheet, in a special column of the vacation schedule itself, or in another way. The main thing is that employees see the approved version of the schedule, and the employer has written confirmation that each member of the workforce has familiarized himself with this document.
The employer should not forget about the procedure for familiarizing itself with the vacation schedule, considering it optional. This violation may be punishable by a fine under Art. 5.27 Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation.
The statement that the vacation schedule is not a local regulatory act and therefore there is no need to familiarize workers with it does not find support from Rostrud and in the courts (Letter of Rostrud dated 01.08.2012 No. PG/5883-6-1, Resolution of the Supreme Court of the Republic of Tatarstan dated 13.06 .2018 No. 4a-575/2018, Decision of the Supreme Court of the Udmurt Republic dated July 2, 2018 in case No. 7-215/2018).
Execution and rescheduling
It was mentioned above that the vacation schedule is mandatory. This means that the employee must go on vacation in accordance with the schedule, and the employer is obliged to let him go during this period.
Before scheduled vacation
leave applications from employees , but there is little point in this. An employee is not required to write such a statement if he goes on vacation as scheduled. But the employer is obliged to notify the employee about the vacation, and do this no later than 14 days before it occurs. To do this, the future vacationer is sent a written notice , in which he must sign.
Transferring vacations
The vacation schedule is drawn up in advance, and it is often necessary to change it. The Labor Code does not prohibit this, you just need to formalize it correctly. Changing the vacation schedule may be necessary for various reasons, for example:
- new employees have been hired, whose vacation must be included in the schedule (they have the right to vacation after 6 months of work);
- there was a production need to reschedule the vacation, and the employee did not object;
- the employee expressed a desire to postpone the vacation, and the employer agreed to this;
- it was necessary to change the vacation period of one of the employees entitled to it at a convenient time.
An employee whose vacation needs to be rescheduled or added to the schedule must submit a vacation request . It is compiled in free form and looks something like this:
The manager, if possible, agrees on the transfer of leave and makes a note about it on the application. In addition, an order is created to amend the vacation schedule. It should contain the information that needs to be changed, as well as the new leave data. Further, based on this order, amendments are made to the document. In our example, we need to reflect changes in columns 7-10 .
If an employee decides not to take vacation this year, he must indicate in the application that this period is transferred to the next year. In this case, column 7 of the table is not filled in.
How long does an employer keep a vacation schedule?
The vacation schedule must be kept for 3 years (clause 453 of the List of standard management archival documents, approved by Order of the Federal Archives of December 20, 2019 No. 236).
The storage period for personnel documents is calculated from January 1 of the year following the year in which the paperwork on them was completed (Part 1, Article 17 of the Law of October 22, 2004 No. 125-FZ “On Archival Affairs in the Russian Federation”, clause 4.1 of the Instructions for application of the List of standard management archival documents, approved by Order of the Federal Archive of December 20, 2019 No. 237).
“Preferential” vacation schedule regulators
In addition to the above-mentioned “children’s” vacation nuances, the vacation schedule may take into account one more group of employees, in respect of whom the employer is obliged to agree with any rest periods they choose.
Among these employees:
- honorary donors (Law of the Russian Federation “On the donation of blood and its components” dated July 20, 2012 No. 125-FZ);
- Heroes of Russia and holders of the Order of Glory (Law of the Russian Federation “On the status of Heroes of the Soviet Union, Heroes of the Russian Federation and full holders of the Order of Glory” dated January 15, 1993 No. 4301-I);
- Heroes of Socialist Labor, Heroes of Labor of the Russian Federation and full holders of the Order of Labor Glory (law “On the provision of social guarantees to Heroes of Socialist Labor, Heroes of Labor of the Russian Federation and full holders of the Order of Labor Glory” dated 01/09/1997 No. 5-FZ);
- Chernobyl victims (Law of the Russian Federation “On the social protection of citizens exposed to radiation as a result of the disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant” dated May 15, 1991 No. 1244-I);
- persons who received a certain amount of radiation in Semipalatinsk (Law “On social guarantees for citizens exposed to radiation as a result of nuclear tests at the Semipalatinsk test site” dated January 10, 2002 No. 2-FZ).
- employees of internal affairs bodies, if they have not exercised their right to the main leave provided for by the schedule (Law “On Service in the Internal Affairs Bodies of the Russian Federation and Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of the Russian Federation” dated November 30, 2011 No. 342-FZ).
If the company practices external part-time work, the part-time employee has the right to go on vacation simultaneously with the next vacation at the main place of work (Article 286 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation).
Find out how to properly arrange a vacation for a part-time worker here .
When drawing up a vacation schedule, the employer will have to take into account the opinion of the employee - the spouse of a military serviceman, who has the right to go on vacation during the period of time coinciding with the spouse's vacation (Law “On the Status of Military Personnel” dated May 27, 1998 No. 76-FZ).
How does a vacation schedule help an employer?
The vacation schedule has several important useful functions:
- it streamlines the work of the accounting department and personnel department in advance registration of vacation and payment of vacation pay. Let us remember that by. part 9 art. 136 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, the employee must receive the vacation amounts due to him no less than 3 calendar days before the start of the vacation (Letter of Rostrud dated May 14, 2020 No. PG/20884-6-1);
- allows you to ensure the rhythm of technological processes at the enterprise due to the even distribution of vacation periods throughout the year;
- makes it possible to find a replacement for an employee going on vacation in advance;
- clearly demonstrates the vacation periods of employees.
Timely, competent preparation and approval of a vacation schedule not only ensures the right of employees to annual leave, but also relieves the employer from claims from regulatory authorities.
Document meaning
The schedule helps solve several problems :
- Plan vacation periods for the next year so that there are no overlaps. For example, so that all specialists performing the same functions do not go on vacation at the same time.
- Take care in advance of replacing the employee during the vacation period or transfer his functions to colleagues.
- Fulfill the requirements of labor legislation: notify the employee in a timely manner about the upcoming vacation and pay vacation pay.
- Keep under control the issue of compliance with vacation dates, as well as the number of unused days.
Amounts of fines for mistakes with the vacation schedule
The vacation schedule is under the close attention of labor inspectors. If the employer does not have it or inspectors find violations in it, punishment may follow - a fine or suspension of activities (Article 5.27 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation, Letter of the Ministry of Labor dated December 8, 2017 No. 14-2 / OOG-9399):
To fine an employer for a vacation schedule, inspectors have only a year, since this offense is not considered ongoing (Resolution of the Presidium of the Supreme Arbitration Court of the Russian Federation dated June 3, 2014 No. 1487/14).
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Let's sum it up
- The vacation schedule for 2021 must be drawn up and approved no later than December 17, 2021.
- Immediately after the vacation schedule is approved, employees must be familiarized with it.
- When drawing up a vacation schedule, you should take into account legal restrictions on dividing vacation into parts and the right of certain categories of employees to vacation at a time convenient for them.
- For violations committed by the employer when drawing up a vacation schedule, as well as for its absence, fines and/or suspension of activities are provided (Article 5.27 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation).
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Unified form T-7: is it necessary to use it?
For the vacation schedule, a unified form T-7 , approved by Decree of the State Statistics Committee of January 5, 2004 No. 1. However, employers are not required to use it unchanged. Based on the resolution of the State Committee of the Russian Federation on Statistics dated March 24, 1999 No. 20, the form can be modified. You can also develop your own template, approve it and use it as a vacation schedule.
In practice, employers most often use a unified form, although the table is often supplemented with the necessary columns.
Form T-7
The following image shows what the unified vacation schedule form (T-7) looks like:
