An employee of the company occasionally takes a few days of leave due to family reasons at the expense of the annual leave. Can the employer deny the employee this or establish a ban, referring to the legislation read below.
Rules for dividing leave days into parts
Current legislation allows the division of annual (main and additional) leaves into parts. But at the same time there are certain conditions.
Part 1 of Art. 12 of Law of Ukraine ‘On Leave’ No. 504/96-ВР of November 15, 1996 and Part 6 of Art. 79 of the Labor Code of Ukraine (hereinafter – the Labor Code) establishes that the annual leave can be divided into parts of any length at the request of the employee, provided that the main continuous part of it will be at least 14 calendar days.
However, the owner of the company may not agree to share the leave as requested by the employee. The employer has the right to propose own terms of division or not to divide it at all (letter of the Ministry of Economy No. 3512-06/21620-07 dated March 31, 2020,). But the employer cannot oblige the employee to use the leave in parts.
Therefore, the vacation can be divided into parts of any length (for example, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 calendar days., etc.), but the main continuous part of the annual leave for the current working year must be at least 14 calendar days.
At the same time, it is not at all necessary to first use the main indivisible part of the vacation. This part of the vacation can be used as the first, second, or alternate part (letter of the Ministry of Social Policy No. 290/13/116-13 dated July 5, 2013,).
It is also not necessary that one of the parts of the annual leave should be exactly 14 days. Such an indivisible part can be larger, but not less.
It can be divided into parts, provided that the main continuous part will be at least 14 calendar days, both the main and annual additional leave. For example, continuous 14 days can consist of a part of annual basic and annual additional leave. This was emphasized by the Ministry of Economy in letter No. 3512-06/42771-09 dated July 9, 2020. But it is not possible to make up annual leave days and, in particular, leave for child days in this way, because leave for child does not belong to annual leave.
