Annual leave can be a tricky minefield

Mbongeni* works at a factory and every year the company closes for 10 days over the December holidays. When this happens, all the staff have to take their annual leave, whether they want to or not.

Mbongeni thinks this is unfair because he wants to take leave over the Easter holidays but he’s not sure what the law says. Can he refuse to take his annual leave when the company closes? Scorpion Legal Protection’s advice

Let’s start with how annual leave works. The Basic Conditions of Employment Act says that an employee must get 1,25 days’ leave per month worked, or 1 day for every 17 days on which the employee worked. Annual leave works in cycles of 12 months, so an employee’s annual leave cycle begins from the first day of employment, or from the end of the previous leave cycle.

Each company will have its own annual leave policy that sets out the rules with regard to how and when leave can be taken. Many employers have a shutdown period over December. If this is the case, the employer can stipulate that annual leave must be taken to coincide with the shutdown.

If an employee uses his annual leave at another time, then the shutdown period will be treated as unpaid leave, and he or she will not be paid for those days.

If a public holiday falls in the period for which you put in annual leave, and the day it falls on is a day you would normally work, then you are entitled to get an extra day’s annual leave for each public holiday. For example, Mbongeni puts in his annual leave for 16-27 December. That’s 10 days. But 16 December is a public holiday (Day of Reconciliation), as is 25 December (Christmas Day) and 26 December (Day of Goodwill), so only 7 days will be taken from Mbongeni’s annual leave. Tips Every employer will have their own annual leave policy. Some may give you extra days for free when they shut down over the holidays, and some may not. This is up to the employer to decide.

* This is only basic advice and cannot be relied on solely. Names have been changed to protect identity.