Author of the article: Lina Smirnova Last modified: January 2021 23949
Entering into legal marital relations, accompanied by a wedding, is a significant event in the life of every person. In connection with this event, working citizens getting married need to take leave for the wedding in order to properly prepare and spend this family holiday.
In this article, we will consider what regulatory documents an employer should follow when allocating days off to an employee for a wedding, whether he is entitled to any payments for these days, and what is the procedure for registering a short-term wedding leave.
Legislative norms for granting leave in connection with a wedding
Many people believe that the employer gives permission to take time off from work in connection with a wedding, guided by his own good will. In reality, this is a misconception. It would be more correct to call such additional days off as additional short-term vacation. Therefore, for it, as for any other leave, the rules defined by law and the conditions for its provision are applicable.
Expert commentary
Kolesnikova Anna
Lawyer
An employee's rights to receive leave for a wedding are clearly defined in the legislation. According to them, the employer has obligations towards employees if they need additional vacation days for weddings.
The legislative basis for regulating the work and rest of working citizens is set out both in federal laws and in legal regulations within each enterprise or organization.
Provisions of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation
The main document regulating labor relations is the Labor Code of the Russian Federation.
The obligation to provide vacation days according to the labor code, among many reasons, including wedding celebrations, is enshrined in Article 128 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation. It states that the employer is obliged to provide the employee with leave for a wedding of no more than 5 unpaid days. Leave permission is issued based on the employee’s application submitted to the employer. Permission to leave does not depend on his length of service at this enterprise. The only caveat is that if wedding days are taken during the probationary period, then the probationary period will be extended by the number of days of the short-term vacation taken. Such days off should not affect the duration of the main legal leave. That is, leave taken by an employee for a wedding cannot in any way affect the provision of legal regular leave.
Based on Article 121 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, any such leave, granted for various reasons, for a period of 14 days, must be taken into account in the length of service for the provision of basic leave.
Article 128 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation
“Leave without pay” (more details)
Article 121 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation
“Calculation of length of service giving the right to annual paid leave” (more details)
What is required under the Labor Code?
So, leave without pay is granted to an employee if there are good reasons. The legislator did not list all possible circumstances, but provided the employer with the opportunity to resolve this issue.
However, the Labor Code of the Russian Federation identifies certain reasons, upon the occurrence of which an employee has the right to receive days of rest. And the employer, in turn, cannot refuse him. Their list is contained in Art. 128 Labor Code of the Russian Federation.
Labor Code of the Russian Federation
Among others, the legislator identified marriage as a valid reason for granting unpaid leave.
The norm in question determines that the employee has the right to write an application for such additional leave at his own expense.
The employer must sign this application and release the employee from performing labor functions within up to 5 calendar days.
Do they give?
Can an employee be refused? They can. But this will be considered a violation of labor laws.
In this situation, the Labor Code of the Russian Federation clearly states that the employee has the right to leave. If a person is refused, his rights are violated.
Consequently, an employee can appeal such actions to the labor inspectorate or other regulatory authorities.
How many days?
The legislator determined the maximum vacation period - 5 calendar days. In practice, this period may be longer.
This will already be determined by agreement between the parties.
If an employee requests a vacation of 5 days, the employer cannot refuse him by providing only 2 or 3 days of rest.
How to calculate compensation for unused vacation?
How many days of vacation are required in less than a year? Find out .
Internal documents of the enterprise
The Labor Code of the Russian Federation limits the duration and conditions for granting leave for a wedding. But each enterprise or organization has its own regulations, according to which days off for weddings are provided on more favorable terms for employees.
Such documents include:
- Collective agreement between the employer and all working employees;
- Regulations on the procedure for remuneration;
- An individual agreement between an employee and an employer when applying for a job.
The Collective Agreement may contain a clause on the provision of an additional vacation period, including with its payment, for a number of reasons, which may reflect the following reasons:
- registration of your own marriage;
- marriage of close relatives, for example children;
- father at the birth of his own child.
Expert commentary
Kireev Maxim
Lawyer
Moreover, when registering your own marriage, a longer leave may be granted compared to the time established by the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, for example, for a period of 7 or more days. The company's regulations on remuneration may include a provision for the provision of paid wedding leave.
Leave for family reasons, including weddings, may also be based on industry regulations, if the enterprise belongs to a certain industry, as well as regulations issued by local authorities.
Vacation registration procedure
The legislation indicates the number of days allotted for a wedding vacation, but does not indicate in what specific period relative to the day of registration of the relationship they should be taken. They can be used:
- before registering a marriage to prepare for the wedding;
- after its registration in order to adequately celebrate this event;
- partly before the conclusion of the alliance and partly after this procedure.
In order to timely process the receipt of wedding days off, the employee should contact the immediate managerial official at the enterprise with an application for their provision. This must be done in advance, at least a week before the day of marriage registration.
The application, approved by the signature of the manager, is transferred to the personnel service, where, on the basis of this application, an order is issued for the enterprise with a mandatory indication of the start and end date of the vacation period and a reference to the legislative basis for its provision.
In accordance with the Order, a representative of the HR department, together with the accounting department, is obliged to make a note on the workday record sheet. The entry must include the leave code and the date and duration of the leave:
- “BS” - means vacation in accordance with the Labor Code of the Russian Federation (no more than 5 working days);
- “BEFORE” – corresponds to additionally allocated rest time, based on internal or other legal documents of the enterprise.
Important! In order for vacation days to have legal force and not be considered absenteeism, the employee must present to the HR department when returning to work after celebrating a wedding a copy of the marriage certificate and the original document to verify the accuracy of the information in the photocopy.
How to write an application?
The application must be completed in compliance with standard office work requirements and contain the following information:
- in the upper right part of the sheet it is indicated to whom the application is addressed (full name of the manager and his position), and from whom it is written (full name of the employee, his position and place of work);
- then in the center of the sheet the name of the document itself “Application” is indicated;
- Below is the essence of the application for the provision of days off for the wedding with a mandatory indication of the date from which they are required and for how long;
- at the end of the document the date of writing the application is indicated, confirmed by the signature of its originator, with the obligatory decoding of the last name, first name and patronymic.
The nuances of paying for wedding weekends
According to the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, days off provided for a wedding are not paid. However, if the local documents of the enterprise provide for partial or full payment for wedding days, then the employee can count on receiving compensation. Additional wedding leave also applies to family leave.
If, for example, the collective agreement provides for its payment, then the calculation of the amount of vacation pay is carried out similarly to the determination of monetary compensation paid when providing compulsory annual leave.
Monetary compensation is determined as follows:
- The employee’s income for the year preceding the vacation is calculated. The calculation takes into account annual earnings without taking into account amounts for business trips and sick leave, as well as other social benefits;
- the number of days worked during the accounting year is specified;
- The average daily earnings are determined by dividing the total annual income by the number of days worked;
- further, daily earnings are multiplied by the number of days of vacation provided. The result obtained is the amount of compensation for wedding days.
Expert commentary
Kamensky Yuri
Lawyer
Payment of the calculated amount must be made three days before going on vacation, unless otherwise provided in the collective agreement. For example, compensation for wedding weekends may be provided after the provision of a marriage registration certificate.
Financial side of the issue
We have determined the procedure for registering this leave, the grounds for granting it, etc. Now let's talk about the financial side.
For example, is this period paid or not? As we said, the employee receives unpaid leave.
But is it always like this? No, the fee will be charged, but only if additional days of rest (over 5) are provided in accordance with the local act.
Paid or administrative?
So, vacation can be paid or unpaid.
In this case, the basis and duration play a role.
If leave is granted under the Labor Code of the Russian Federation and its duration does not exceed 5 days, then it is not paid. When a vacation is prescribed under a collective agreement or other local act and lasts more than 5 days, it is paid.
In what cases can payment be provided?
Leave will be paid under the following circumstances:
- provided on the basis of a local company document;
- duration more than 5 days (unless otherwise provided by local regulations).
That is, the decision to pay for vacation is within the competence of the company. It is the employer who has the right, but not the obligation, to extend and pay for the leave of his employees.
How to calculate compensation?
Payment is made, as in the case of other vacations, at the average salary. The billing period is 12 months.
The income received by the employee is summed up and then divided by the number of days worked.
Please note that the calculation does not take into account some types of payments - for example, travel allowances.
Some periods are excluded from the time of actual work activity, including when the employee was incapacitated.
Is financial assistance also available?
Financial assistance is not provided for in the Labor Code of the Russian Federation. The decision to provide it also remains at the discretion of the employer.
Obligations to issue it may be fixed in a collective agreement or other local acts.
Payment of financial assistance
The employer is not required by law to pay financial assistance. However, the conditions for its payment in certain circumstances may be provided for by a collective agreement or other local regulations of the enterprise.
If such a situation exists within the enterprise, then the employee, in order to receive financial assistance, must contact his immediate management with an appropriate application for its payment, indicating the reason for providing assistance - “in connection with the wedding.”
After considering the application, the enterprise issues an order to pay the employee an amount determined in accordance with established internal standards.
Is it available to everyone?
Both newlyweds are entitled to leave. Not provided for by law
restrictions on the number of holidays that an employee can receive on this basis. That is, if he gets married 10 times, that’s exactly how many vacations he can take.
If a person works part-time, then all employers must provide him with leave.
How long an employee worked in the organization before getting married does not matter; he has equal rights with all other employees, even if he worked only one day before the wedding.
There is no mention in the law of whether someone who first got married and then got a job can take such leave. In this case, the employer’s opinion on this matter will most likely be key.
Such an employee will most likely be denied financial assistance.
The main condition for an employee to have the opportunity to exercise the rights provided for by labor legislation is that he has an employment relationship formalized in accordance with this legislation.
If cooperation with the employer occurs in some other form (the relationship is not formalized or, for example, a contract is concluded), then the employee does not have the right to leave in honor of the wedding.
If you want to find out how to solve your particular problem, please contact us through the online consultant form or call:
- Moscow.
- Saint Petersburg.
Extension of wedding days
According to the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, an employee, in agreement with the employer, may be granted unpaid leave for personal reasons of any duration. Therefore, if an employee getting married requires a longer absence from work in connection with the wedding than the five-day period established by law, and he can agree with the employer on its duration, then the wedding vacation can be extended.
The duration of vacation in agreement with management is not regulated by law; there is no exact vacation period, which is the maximum to keep your job. The employer always proceeds from the interests of the enterprise, so an unlimited amount of vacation for an employee is not beneficial to him. Therefore, each case is individual and requires a separate solution. An employee can, for example, be asked to extend vacation for time previously worked beyond the norm by taking time off, or agree to work after vacation when returning to work.
An employee recently got married, but did not use the right to leave
Such situations occur quite often. It is not always possible to go on a cruise immediately after the wedding or celebrate the wedding in another way. There are no legal provisions in this case either, from which we can conclude that the employee has not lost the right to wedding leave.
In such situations, the procedure does not change. The employee writes a statement, and the employer approves it. But you shouldn’t inform your boss on the last day. He, of course, has no right to refuse, but there is no need to spoil the relationship either. If an employee does not yet know the exact date of departure and is counting on a last-minute trip, it is better for him to notify his boss about his intention to take a vacation.
