Sick leave during vacation: how to extend and how much they will pay

See a doctor immediately

If the upcoming vacation is suddenly overshadowed by illness or injury, a person has 2 possible options:

treat yourself without turning to doctors and without documenting it;
record the disease, receive treatment recommendations and an open sick leave certificate from an official medical institution.

In the first case, the employee’s illness during vacation will remain his purely personal matter, which will not in any way affect payments and the duration of the vacation: during legal rest, a person has the right to spend time at his own discretion.

Therefore, the first recommendation to all sick people at any time and in any status is to immediately contact your doctor, opening a certificate of incapacity for work from the first day of illness until complete recovery. In this case, the employee can count on social guarantees.

FOR YOUR INFORMATION! It doesn’t matter whether you are treated on an outpatient basis or in a hospital - the sick leave certificate is issued in the same form.

Is it permissible to postpone unpaid leave due to illness?

The Labor Code does not contain rules that would indicate the possibility of changing the terms of unpaid leave. Art. 124 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation applies only to annual paid vacations. But existing judicial practice gives reason to believe that postponing vacation without preserving earnings is also permissible in some cases.

The Supreme Court of the Russian Federation, in its ruling dated October 4, 2013 No. 69-KG13-4, recorded its interpretation of the norm of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation. This litigation involved unpaid leave following paid leave. The employee was fired for absenteeism because the employer refused to extend unpaid leave due to illness. But the court sided with the employee and confirmed the right to transfer vacation days due to sick leave.

But there is one more nuance. According to clause 28 of the Procedure for issuing certificates of incapacity for work (approved by order of the Ministry of Health of Russia dated 01.09.2020 No. 925n) and clause 1 of Art. 9 of Law No. 255-FZ, sick leave is not issued during the period of unpaid leave. That is, if an employee brings a sick leave certificate issued during such a vacation, it means that he did not notify the medical institution that he was on vacation. The Social Insurance Fund most likely will not pay benefits for such sick leave.

How to check the authenticity of a sick leave is described in the article “Actions of an employer with a fake sick leave.”

In the Guide to HR Issues from ConsultantPlus, experts step by step consider all the possible nuances associated with the next vacation, incl. and transfer due to sick leave.

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Illness should not take away your rest

The labor legislation of the Russian Federation guarantees workers the opportunity to rest, not overshadowed by treatment, with documentary evidence of ill health. An employee who falls ill during vacation can count on its extension or postponement, while sick leave will be paid in the usual manner. Compensation is also possible for vacation days ruined by illness if they were not used for their intended purpose.

The decision to extend the vacation, transfer it to another period, or receive money for these days is made by the employee in agreement with the employer. Without the employee's consent, the employer will not be able to make a choice between these options. By default, it is only possible to extend the rest for as many days as the temporary disability took.

Is it possible to take leave after sick leave later than required according to the vacation schedule?

The possibility of extending or postponing paid leave is provided for in paragraph 1 of Art. 124 Labor Code of the Russian Federation. In this case, whether the end date of the vacation will be changed or the short-term vacation will be transferred to another period is determined by agreement between the employee and the employer. But general cases are described in quite ancient, but still valid Rules on regular and additional leaves, which were approved by the People's Commissariat of Labor of the USSR on April 30, 1930 No. 169 and are as follows (clause 18):

if the employee falls ill before the start of the vacation, then a new rest period is determined by agreement of the parties;
if the start of sick leave falls during a period when the employee was already on vacation, then the end date of the vacation is automatically postponed to the number of days for which the certificate of incapacity for work was issued.

Important! If an employee falls ill during the period of time off, which he was granted for working on weekends, then the employer is not obliged to postpone the rest period to another time.

What to do if you get sick while on vacation

We provide recommendations on the algorithm of actions of a person on vacation who has become temporarily disabled.

Contact a medical institution and open a sick leave certificate in the prescribed form.
Notify your employer of illness that interrupted your vacation.
Agree on an acceptable option for replacing sick days.
If you choose the option of extending your vacation, you do not need to do anything, just after the sick leave is closed, do not return to work for as many days as the treatment took, and upon leaving, provide sick leave to your employer.
If an employee wants to transfer vacation days replaced by sick leave to another period or add these days to a subsequent vacation, he must write a corresponding application.
Compensation for unused days, if the monetary option is chosen, will be paid within the time limits provided for by internal regulations or upon dismissal.

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IMPORTANT! In any option, sick leave is paid in full, except for the restrictions provided by law.

If you get sick while abroad

If the sick employee’s vacation did not take place in the Russian Federation, it is imperative to obtain all possible medical confirmation of the fact of ill health. To do this, you need to use medical insurance if there was a tourist trip, or contact local doctors yourself. The documents they issue must be kept safe. In accordance with them, it is impossible to receive payments for disability at work - after all, they are not of the standard established by law. However, by presenting these papers upon arrival at your “home” medical institution, you can obtain a standard sick leave certificate and proceed according to the above scheme.

If it was not possible to replace the sheet with a standard one, then the employer can meet halfway and extend or reschedule the ruined vacation. But you shouldn’t count on sick pay in such a situation: no official sick leave means no pay.

Manager's procedure

As for an employer who receives notice of the illness of an employee on vacation, he only needs to take certain actions if a decision is made to postpone the vacation. The extension does not require any special accounting documentation. If an application is received from a recovered employee to postpone this period, the employer must proceed according to the following scheme:

an order is issued to postpone or add a certain number of days to the next vacation (by written agreement with the employee);
the accounting department makes payments for sick leave;
“sick leave” clarifications are entered into the employee’s time sheet.

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What information must be included in an application to postpone leave due to illness?

An application for transferring leave due to sick leave must contain all the facts that served as the reason for such transfer:

initial vacation dates according to the approved vacation schedule;
period of incapacity for work and details of sick leave;
desired dates to which you want to reschedule your vacation.

A sample application for transferring leave due to sick leave can be downloaded from the link below.

Based on the employee’s application, the employer, if he agrees with the terms of the transfer, issues an order to amend the vacation schedule and recalculate vacation pay. To avoid having to rewrite the application several times, it is advisable to first agree on the period of the new vacation with the employer.

A sample vacation order can be downloaded from the material “How to arrange a transfer of vacation at the request of an employee.”

If production needs do not allow the employee to go on vacation, then the planned dates will have to be changed. The same situation will occur if the desired transfer dates coincide with the vacation dates in the approved vacation schedule for the employee who must replace the employee requesting the transfer. Priority in this situation goes to the one whose vacation is approved by the schedule.

In the case where an employee wishes to extend leave due to illness, it is not necessary to write a statement, but some personnel services still require the desire to change the end date of the leave to be recorded in writing.

When you shouldn't count on sick pay

The law establishes cases when, even if the fact of incapacity for work is established, sick leave payments to the employee are not due.

The cause of ill health is excessive consumption of alcohol or drugs.
Sick leave was received while the employee was suspended from work.
If the sick leave certificate contains a note that the illness or injury occurred due to the employee’s negligent attitude towards his health (for example, violation of the sanatorium regime, etc.).
If the employee was taken into custody during the onset of illness.

Vacations that do not include sick leave

Legislation guarantees employees several types of vacations, both paid and at their own expense. Accordingly, an illness that occurs during vacation will not necessarily be paid for as temporary disability, even if the sick leave was issued and processed as required. Let's analyze the features of sick leave during various types of vacations.

Study leave does not give the right to payment of sick leave, as well as to transfer and replace the period, because in connection with training this loses its meaning.
Administrative leaves are entered into the working time sheet in full, so it does not matter what the employee was doing when he was absent from work “at his own expense.” However, part of the sick leave may be paid if the leave is still valid at the time when the employee was expected to return to work.
Both types of maternity leave do not give the right to payment of sick leave: maternity leave itself is, in fact, a long sick leave, and on maternity leave the mother will not be given a certificate of incapacity for work, and if issued by mistake, the employer will not receive it anyway will pay.
Sick leave for parents of a sick child or family member . The law provides paid time to care for a sick child or disabled relative, but such sick leave must not exceed a specified number of days. When treated in a hospital, paid sick leave will be issued for the entire period until discharge. Such non-working days cannot be extended or postponed, even if the mother herself became ill while caring for the child.

ATTENTION! Sometimes an employer, taking care of his employees who have children, prescribes in a local regulation the possibility of extending or postponing vacation days taken due to the illness of children: this is permitted by law.

Results

Leave may be extended or postponed due to employee illness. But in order to exercise the right to change the duration of vacation, the employee must show good faith and promptly notify the employer that he fell ill during his vacation. New vacation periods should satisfy the employee’s wishes, but also take into account production needs.

Sources:

Labor Code of the Russian Federation
Rules on regular and additional leaves, approved. NKT USSR 04/30/1930 No. 169

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Renewal and transfer: the difference in money

The material component of these types of vacation compensation is different.

Extension of vacation for days constituting incapacity for work involves the calculation of vacation funds. And when transferring, the billing period will be a different period that does not coincide in time with the vacation period, so the amount will be different, usually somewhat less.

The vacation pay received by the employee will thus turn out to be more than he was entitled to: after all, the vacation or part of it turned out to be unused. None of the employees is obliged to return the surplus; the law also does not allow it to be deducted from wages. The employer can only count them against subsequent payments.