Many of you have asked me, “Aunty, I work a five-and-a-half-day work, so on Saturdays I work half-day. When I applied for annual leave, HR said it’s one day and not half day. Is that legal?”
Unfortunately, it is.
Not just that. Let’s say you go to work in the morning, then you’re not feeling well. During lunch time, you go to see the panel doctor and obtain an MC for that day. Even though you worked in the morning, it is still considered a full day of sick leave if you only take the afternoon off.
You see, when it comes to leave, there is no half-half.
Even in the Employment Act 1955, specifically Section 60E, the Act prescribes that when prorating leave, the calculation shall follow the mathematical principle of the floor and ceiling function, whereby any fraction less than 0.5 is rounded down to the nearest whole number, and any fraction of 0.5 or more is rounded up to the nearest whole number.
Hence, a half-day leave is legally rounded up to one full day of leave.
If any of the companies, like my previous company, recognise half-day leave, that is because the company is providing benefits that are better than the Employment Act 1955 (FYI, we even rounded up to 0.5 if the fraction was between 0.3 and 0.5).
Hope that clarifies.
Happy weekend, everybody!
Remember, HR is not difficult, but people they can be.
f you want to learn the HR side and also the people side, come join me at auntyhr.net/events,
xoxoxo, AuntyHR
