Provisions Related To Leaves And Public Holidays In Nepal

The “Labour Act, 2017 (2074)” has entitled employees to avail various types of leaves during their employment. For employers to comply with the law, it is necessary to understand the rules governing these leaves.

Having a systematic leave managed in your organization will meet your employee's need for time off and satisfy your legal obligations. Below is the list of leaves that an employer needs to offer to their employees according to the Labor Act, 2017 (2074).

Weekly Off:

 

As per provisions of Chapter 9 of the Labor Act, 2017 (2074), Employees shall get one day of weekly off.

Sick Leave :

An employee can avail of a maximum of twelve working days of sick leave in a full working year or proportion thereof. 

Additional guidance related to Sick leave:

1. Sick leave needs to be utilized for medical reasons for self only.

2. An employee who seeks sick leave for more than three consecutive days shall submit a medical certificate. 

3. If an employee is unable to report to work due to medical reasons or in case of an emergency, wherein it is not possible to give prior intimation, the Reporting Manager should be informed as soon as possible through the fastest means available. If the concerned employee's Reporting Manager is not available, another member of the team should be contacted. 

Maternity Leave:

Labor Act, 2017 (2074) requires employers to provide pregnant female employees with maternity leave totaling fourteen weeks before or after delivery. 

The female employee who takes maternity leave shall get full remuneration for sixty days and the rest balance period shall be accounted for as unpaid leaves.

If a female employee gives birth to a deceased child or suffers a miscarriage during or after her seven-month pregnancy, she shall get leaves as if she had a normal delivery. 

Paternity Leave:

Paternity Leave is a leave offered to expectant fathers after a child is born. If a male employee’s wife is going to deliver a baby, he shall get paid for paternity care leave for fifteen days. 

Where the mother dies before the completion of sixty days of the birth of her child, the employee whose wife has died may take paid leave for the remaining period for taking care of the child.

Bereavement (Mourning) Leave:

Bereavement leave is a temporary time off granted to an employee if a loved one passes away. As per provision of the Labor Act,  an employee shall be allowed a bereavement leave of thirteen days in case such employee is directly involved in the funeral rites or last ritual of a deceased person.

The employee who goes on bereavement leave shall receive full remuneration. 

Public Holiday:

Each employee is entitled to paid public holiday of Thirteen days including May Day, and fourteen days including International Women Labour Day in the case of a female employee. 

The public holidays in the case of an enterprise shall be as determined by the regulatory authority, if any, that regulates such an enterprise and as determined by the employer in the other situations. 

The government of Nepal has declared 43 public holidays for the upcoming year 2079 BS.

Casual Leave/Annual Leave:

Every employee shall get paid casual leave at the rate of one day for twenty days worked. This leave can be availed to address any personal requirement which is ad-hoc in nature.

An employee who is employed in an educational institution or who gets summer or winter leave shall not get casual leave. Provided that where such leave is lesser than the period of casual leave, the employee shall be entitled to avail casual leave for such shortfall period.

Compensatory Leave:

An employee who is involved in urgent work that must not be stopped or must be done continuously shall get the compensatory leave in consideration for having worked on any day of weekly off or public holiday. 

Any employee who had worked during weekly off or public holiday shall be provided with the compensatory off within twenty-one days of the date of engagement in work. 

Accumulation of leave: 

An employee is entitled to accumulate casual leave and sick leave for up to ninety days and forty-five days, respectively. 

Where an employee is relieved of the service for any reason or in the event of his/her death, he/she or their family member as prescribed shall get the lump sum amount to be set by the last basic remuneration being drawn by him or her for his or her accumulated casual leave and sick leave. 

An employee whose accumulated leave exceeds the period shall, at the end of each year, get the amount to be set by their basic remuneration for the leave of such excess period. 

Leave not as a matter of right:

All leaves except sick leave, bereavement leave, maternity leave, and paternity leave to which an employee is entitled are only facilities and cannot be claimed as a matter of right.

In case of leaves other than sick leave, bereavement leave, and maternity leave, the employer may, for the reason to be specified, refuse, withhold, deduct or alter the time of the approved leave, based on the need of the work at the workplace. 

For employers to comply with the law, it is necessary to understand the rules governing these leaves. Every employer should be aware of the rules & regulations governing these leaves and comply with them.

Beyond this, many companies now offer many additional leave types to employees. Some of the additional leaves employers can provide to their employees are as below:

Funeral Leave:

Funeral Leave is a leave type offered when there is a death in the family or losing a loved one. This leave is for participating in the funeral services, taking care of any personal matters, and most importantly, grieving. Granting this leave type to employees is not required by the Labor Act, but nowadays many progressive companies offer funeral leave for 1 week.

Special Leave:

Special leave is granted to employees for a day who need to be absent from work during working hours that do not come under any other type of leave. Special leave identifies the need of the employees to stay away from work to fulfill their important circumstances. The reason for taking this kind of leave can be anything from employees having to engage in volunteering work, religious beliefs, unforeseen emergencies, personal celebrations, etc.

Marriage Leave:

Companies tend to provide leave for employees getting married called marriage leave. The marriage leave is granted for anywhere between 1 to 15 days depending upon the company. The employee who intends to take the leave might be required to provide additional documents such as a marriage card etc. for approving the leave. At times, due to work emergencies employees may have to return to work early. For such cases, companies may allow the marriage leave to be taken anytime during the first few weeks duration. 

Quarantine Leave:

If an employee is not able to work because they have to quarantine and self-isolate due to infectious disease they should immediately contact their employers to get the Quarantine leave. If an employee is sick with  COVID-19 and needs to self-isolate they can apply for quarantine leave. Safety at the workplace during COVID-19 can be maximized by encouraging those with Covid symptoms to stay at home. 

Leave without Pay:

In cases where the employee has used up all their leave balances but still needs to take time off work leave without pay can be allowed. Since income will not be provided it is called leave without pay. This kind of leave will require permission from the supervisors and is given on a need basis. During the payroll processing, depending on the days of absence salary deduction will be made. 

It is time-consuming and burdensome for HR to handle employees’ leaves and absences. Complex and manually controlled leave management programs may not guarantee an error-free result. Thus, automated leave management software like RealHRSoft easily tracks employees' leaves, including paid leaves, sick leaves, compensatory leaves, etc for payroll, appraisal, and leave reports. Furthermore, it performs all the functions like attendance management, payroll management, performance appraisal, HR Intelligence, task management, onboarding, and offboarding of HR team needs.