EMPLOYEES MUST BE GRANTED PAID LEAVE: EC

Public and private sector employers should grant special paid leave to their employees for the purpose of voting at presidential election on November 16, Election Commission said yesterday.

Since there have been several complaints from employees with reference to previous elections regarding the problems they faced in obtaining leave required by law

“In terms of the provision of Section 110 of Act No.15 of 1981 on the granting of leave to employees to enable them to cast their vote at the presidential election, the period of leave so permitted should be considered as special full pay leave in the case of all employees including casual employees and should be outside the employees’ normal leave entitlement,” it said.

The EC said under the provisions of the above section, the employees were required to make a written request before such leave is to be taken.

It said the period of time available to the employees for this purpose had to be determined by the employer on the distance an employee had to travel from his working place to the polling station, and back to his working place.

“Since there have been several complaints from employees with reference to previous elections regarding the problems they faced in obtaining leave required by law, all employers both in the public and private sectors are requested to comply with the legal requirement and grant leave to the employees, to enable them to cast vote at the forthcoming presidential election,” the EC said.

Polling will take place on November 16, 2019 from 7.00 am to 4.00 pm.