Rules for drawing up a vacation schedule for 2021

Source: Magazine “Human Resources Department of a Commercial Organization”

The vacation schedule is one of the mandatory local documents in every organization, the availability of which is often checked by labor inspectors. And now, when the calendar year is almost coming to an end, work on its compilation can gradually begin. Therefore, it’s time to remind employers how the vacation schedule is drawn up, who approves it, whether it is necessary to familiarize the organization’s employees with it, whether to include everyone there, whether changes can be made to it and how.

A vacation schedule, as already mentioned, should be in every organization. According to Art. 123 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation , a vacation schedule is a document that determines the procedure for granting vacations and is mandatory for both the employer and employees. The schedule must be drawn up annually two weeks before the start of the calendar year.

Briefly about the 2021 vacation schedule

By the end of the year, there is critically little time for everything. Use our diagram - it will tell you when to draw up a vacation schedule for 2021 and in what form, as well as with whom to coordinate it and who to familiarize with it.

You will find details on what to consider when drawing up and approving a vacation schedule in the following sections.

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Procedure for registration and approval

The planned vacation of all employees of the enterprise, documented on paper, must be approved no later than 14 days before the end of the outgoing year. Until 2013, the vacation schedule was drawn up in the legally established form (T-7). Currently, this form is not mandatory, but, for convenience, you can use it by removing unnecessary ones and adding the necessary columns.

It is allowed to make adjustments to the proposed table - deletion and addition of new columns. Information on OKUD, OKPO, marking trade unions (if there are none) is optional. Cells are often supplemented with columns for coordination with departments and lawyers.

It is also possible to enter a column with the employee’s signature confirming familiarization with the start date of the vacation period.

So, the following information is usually included in the vacation schedule:

Name of the organization;
document number, date of execution and for what year it is drawn up;
information about the motivated opinion of the trade union (if any);
a place to record document approval;
information about employees (full name, position, number of days off, expected start date of absence);
columns for entering information about the actual date of leave, its transfer and recall;
cells for recording employee familiarization;
information about the document developer, his signature.

All employees, including those on parental leave and part-time employees, must be included in the local regulations. If an employee plans to take paid leave in installments, then information about this is provided in two lines.

Moreover, it should be remembered that one part of a continuous absence must last 14 days or more. The document records both the main leave and additional leave.

Do not underestimate the importance of why a vacation schedule is needed, since the document regulates an important part of labor relations and confirms compliance with labor law standards at the enterprise.

Next, a specialist from the HR department is involved in the development process. The compilation process can be divided into several parts, depending on which fields need to be filled in:

Registration of columns 1-6. First of all, you need to enter all the initial information about the company, the name of the structural unit, position and full name of the personnel employed in the organization. The fifth column contains information about the number of paid days provided. If the vacation is divided into parts, the information is filled out in separate lines for each case of using the right to vacation. The sixth column is filled in with information about the day the rest begins, but it is not forbidden to indicate the entire period for convenience.
Next, throughout the year, you will have to make corrective entries in columns 7-10. They are filled out by hand while employees are using their right to rest. If a person uses days outside the schedule, in the 8th column they reflect a footnote to the number and date of the internal document on the basis of which the adjustment is made (internal order). When entering information in this column, you need to take into account that the employee’s application in itself is not a sufficient basis for the transfer - the application is subject to agreement with management and is formalized by an internal order. The 9th column describes the expected vacation (date in the current or next calendar period). The 7th column includes information about the actual use of days.
The last column, 10th, contains notes entered by the responsible HR employee. It reflects any useful information related to the vacation of a particular employee (reason for shifting dates, recall from vacation for specific reasons specified in the Labor Code of the Russian Federation).

Vacation on schedule guarantees the normal operation of the company, without disruptions and failures, however, it is rarely possible to comply with the planned periods, since various unforeseen situations arise during the course of time that require adjustments. Information from the document allows you to track employees’ use of the right to paid days and regulate taking vacations.

The next step in drawing up a schedule is to obtain a reasoned opinion from the trade union (if any). According to the law, a representative of a public organization is given 5 working days for approval. Then the document, no later than two weeks from the beginning of the year for which it was drawn up, is approved by the head of the enterprise.

The final stage is to familiarize employees with the local regulatory act and sign it.

Why the schedule must be approved no later than December 17, 2021

This date is not accidental and was calculated according to the norms of Art. 123 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation - the vacation schedule for the next year is approved no later than 2 weeks before the start of the calendar year.

The calendar year, as we know, ends on December 31st. Let's count 2 weeks from this date and get the deadline no later than which the vacation schedule for 2021 must be approved:

If the employer does not have a timely approved schedule, he may be fined under Parts 1 and 2 of Art. 5.27 Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation (we will tell you more about fines below).

Only micro-enterprises that have refused to adopt local regulations, including the vacation schedule, may not approve the vacation schedule within the specified period. In this case, it is necessary to conclude a written agreement with the employee, indicating this in the appropriate clause of the employment contract on the standard form (clause 22 of the Standard Form of the Employment Contract, approved by Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation of August 27, 2016 No. 858). Such rules are provided for in Part 1 of Art. 309.1, Art. 309.2 Labor Code of the Russian Federation.

Preparation for compilation

The development of a schedule, as a separate mandatory procedure, is described in the company’s internal regulations (this may also be a collective agreement). The rules and examples of filling out are approved within the enterprise, based on the general requirements of personnel records management. It is recommended to issue a separate regulation indicating the procedure for planning vacations and specific persons who sign and approve the document on planned vacation at the enterprise.

In addition to determining who is responsible for developing the form, they determine who will maintain the vacation schedule throughout the year, determine the approval format, and whether a seal is needed.

If the work on compiling the table is not defined within the framework of other enterprise standards, a separate order must be prepared to determine:

A person authorized to fill out and prepare an extract from the vacation schedule. You can distribute responsibility between the head of the HR department and his employee.
The period of preliminary agreement of dates with employees within divisions.
The period during which the manager approves the table prepared by the HR department.
Date of document readiness (drawn up no later than 2 weeks before the end of the current year).

Typical errors include inconsistency in the sequence of employee departures, which leads to production failures due to the lack of interchangeability of personnel. It is important to take into account the rest periods of each hired employee before approval, because, ultimately, the vacation schedule is signed by the manager.

To avoid disputes, it is recommended to describe the procedure for distributing vacation days in the company’s internal regulations. For example, deputies and their managers cannot rest at the same time.

In a general education institution, it is allowed to indicate specific months for teachers to rest (based on the school year and student holidays). Due to production needs, it is possible to allocate a specific period of the year for vacationers if this time is characterized by a decrease in the volume of work. Thus, the employer has the right to determine the periods when it is best to organize paid annual rest for staff.

Authorized employees encounter difficulties during the drafting process.

How to agree on rest time for a newly hired employee

When drawing up a schedule for the next year, difficulties arise with the distribution of vacations, taking into account the newly hired person. According to Art. 122 of labor legislation, an employee has the right to request leave after six months of work. By agreement of management, paid days may be provided earlier.

Features of an employment contract with a part-time worker

For certain categories, the question of whether vacation is mandatory or not at the first request of an employee does not arise, since the enterprise is obliged to provide the required days by law (employees under 18 years of age, part-time workers, etc.)

For a new employee, it is recommended to draw up a schedule with a start date no earlier than 6 months after employment. As employment progresses, it is possible to issue an additional vacation schedule for new employees.

Part-time job

To arrange a vacation period for a part-time worker, you need to clarify the days of paid rest at another job.

According to Art. 286 of the Labor Code, an enterprise where a person works as a part-time worker is obliged to allocate days according to the employee vacation schedule approved in another organization.

Difficulties may arise if an employee who combines responsibilities at the enterprise asks to reschedule days because the vacation period in another company has shifted.

Decree

When keeping records of hired personnel and their vacations, special attention is paid to including records about women on maternity leave. In fact, the law does not provide clear instructions to include female workers on parental leave in the main list of vacationers. There are situations when an employee suddenly breaks maternity leave and goes to work, having previously exercised the right to paid leave.

If there is a possibility of leaving maternity leave next year, it is recommended to coordinate vacation plans with the employee.

Special categories of employees in the vacation schedule

In general, the employer has the right to disagree with the vacation dates chosen by employees and to regulate the process of granting vacations taking into account production needs in order to ensure continuous work technology.

However, there are categories of employees whose opinion on the vacation period the employer is obliged to take into account (part 3 of article 122, part 4 of article 123 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation). For example, the right to use vacation at a convenient time is available to:

women before the start of maternity leave (paragraph 2, part 3, article 122 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation);
parents with many children with children under 12 years of age (Article 262.2 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation);
persons awarded the sign “Honorary Donor of Russia” (clause 1, part 1, 2, article 23 of the Law of July 20, 2012 No. 125-FZ, Appendix No. 7 to the Order of the Ministry of Health and Social Development of Russia of March 31, 2005 No. 246) and some other categories of workers .

The vacation period of such employees and the specific date are determined at their request (Letters of the Ministry of Labor dated 02.27.2020 No. 14-2/OOG-1439, dated 10.31.2019 No. 14-2/OOG-8456).

If an employer refuses to provide certain categories of employees with vacation at a time convenient for them or violates the vacation schedule, employees have every right to complain to the labor dispute commission or send an application to the court (Articles 382, 391 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation).

Additional leave

When calculating the total duration of workers' rest, both planned and additional leave are taken into account. It is provided to a certain circle of working citizens who work:

In a dangerous workplace.
With an irregular work schedule.
In areas with particularly difficult working conditions.
In other situations stipulated by current legislation.

Additional days can be introduced at the enterprise level and secured by a collective agreement or other local documents.

The duration of annual vacation is always calculated in calendar days, that is, taking into account weekends. However, official non-working days falling during an employee’s planned or additional rest are not included in vacation. In addition, the rest period is extended if:

The employee received temporary disability.
He performed state duties the fulfillment of which requires release from work.
Other situations provided for by regulations.

The employee must notify management of circumstances that entail an automatic extension of leave.

Advice. If the vacation time set in the schedule does not suit you, you can contact management with a request to change the vacation time. It is better if you have some valid reasons for such a displacement, since the decision is made by the employer at its own discretion.

Familiarization of employees with the vacation schedule

According to the norms of Art. 123 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, the vacation schedule is mandatory for the employer and employees. To comply with this requirement, both parties to the employment relationship must be familiar with this document in a timely manner.

There are no special rules in the law regarding familiarization of employees with the vacation schedule. Therefore, it does not matter in what form you received the signature of the employees - on a separate familiarization sheet, in a special column of the vacation schedule itself, or in another way. The main thing is that employees see the approved version of the schedule, and the employer has written confirmation that each member of the workforce has familiarized himself with this document.

The employer should not forget about the procedure for familiarizing itself with the vacation schedule, considering it optional. This violation may be punishable by a fine under Art. 5.27 Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation.

The statement that the vacation schedule is not a local regulatory act and therefore there is no need to familiarize workers with it does not find support from Rostrud and in the courts (Letter of Rostrud dated 01.08.2012 No. PG/5883-6-1, Resolution of the Supreme Court of the Republic of Tatarstan dated 13.06 .2018 No. 4a-575/2018, Decision of the Supreme Court of the Udmurt Republic dated July 2, 2018 in case No. 7-215/2018).

Filling Features

Scheduling by employees themselves

Employee participation in the discussion of the schedule is carried out as follows: for a period of time (maximum week) a blank schedule with empty columns, but with filled-in date intervals, is posted on the information stand (an option is an electronic file with shared access to it).

For example: “01 February – 08 February” or “11 March – 15 March”. Employees are invited to choose dates that are convenient for them and enter their names in the empty spaces. Why intervals should be indicated weekly will be discussed separately below.

Number of vacations per month

Depending on the size of the enterprise, the density of vacations in the summer increases. To give the opportunity to spend vacations in the warm season, the manager must be ready to let several people go at a time. At the same time, he is obliged to keep the interests of the company in mind and not allow employees to be suddenly absent from key positions.

Key dates of the year

Any mass absence of subordinates is perceived by any leader as a natural disaster, but if you wish, in some moments you can control the elements yourself.
It is no secret that the key periods of time during which the load on all company services increases many times over have long been known. These are the beginning of the year, the end of the year and the May holidays (due to their length and duration). It is also no secret that employees will certainly want to legally extend their vacation by choosing the appropriate dates. This situation should not be allowed under any circumstances, so you just need to remove the following dates from the vacation schedule:

the first working day of the year (leaving only the second two weeks of the month for January);
December 15 (and later until the end of the year);
May 01-15.

Practice shows that at least one out of 5-6 employees will already take a couple of days off by taking sick leave during the vacation or immediately after it, so there is no need to present additional temptations.

The order in which surnames are entered

Previously, there was an immutable rule in the army: discussion of certain

actions began with the junior in rank, so that his opinion would not be influenced by the authority of the higher command.

Having projected this approach onto a given situation, it would be a useful and psychologically correct move to separately determine such a sequence.

First, free columns should be filled by lower-level workers, and then in ascending order.

An additional advantage will be that managers will see who and when they will be absent . This way they will be able to determine the optimal date for their vacation.

Special insurance experience - what is it? Are you planning to fire a retiree? Find out whether it is possible to dismiss a person of retirement age at the initiative of the employer by reading our article. A sample voluntary resignation letter can be found here.

How long does an employer keep a vacation schedule?

The vacation schedule must be kept for 3 years (clause 453 of the List of standard management archival documents, approved by Order of the Federal Archives of December 20, 2019 No. 236).

The storage period for personnel documents is calculated from January 1 of the year following the year in which the paperwork on them was completed (Part 1, Article 17 of the Law of October 22, 2004 No. 125-FZ “On Archival Affairs in the Russian Federation”, clause 4.1 of the Instructions for application of the List of standard management archival documents, approved by Order of the Federal Archive of December 20, 2019 No. 237).

How does a vacation schedule help an employer?

The vacation schedule has several important useful functions:

it streamlines the work of the accounting department and personnel department in advance registration of vacation and payment of vacation pay. Let us remember that by. part 9 art. 136 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, the employee must receive the vacation amounts due to him no less than 3 calendar days before the start of the vacation (Letter of Rostrud dated May 14, 2020 No. PG/20884-6-1);
allows you to ensure the rhythm of technological processes at the enterprise due to the even distribution of vacation periods throughout the year;
makes it possible to find a replacement for an employee going on vacation in advance;
clearly demonstrates the vacation periods of employees.

Timely, competent preparation and approval of a vacation schedule not only ensures the right of employees to annual leave, but also relieves the employer from claims from regulatory authorities.

Filling examples

Example 1

The employee was hired, but has not yet completed the required length of service.

If an employee was hired in December, he will receive the right to leave only in July. Consequently, in the remaining six months he will need to be given 4 weeks of vacation, but his name should not appear on the vacation schedule until July.

Example 2

The employee was hired this year, but will receive the right to vacation before its expiration.

Due to objective circumstances, the employee is not included in the vacation schedule; in this case, he is granted vacation outside the schedule.

Example 3

The employee wishes to split the vacation into more than two parts.

Many workers need a two-week rest only in the summer, while other times of the year are less interesting to them. In such cases, they indicate time periods of one week.

Amounts of fines for mistakes with the vacation schedule

The vacation schedule is under the close attention of labor inspectors. If the employer does not have it or inspectors find violations in it, punishment may follow - a fine or suspension of activities (Article 5.27 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation, Letter of the Ministry of Labor dated December 8, 2017 No. 14-2 / OOG-9399):

To fine an employer for a vacation schedule, inspectors have only a year, since this offense is not considered ongoing (Resolution of the Presidium of the Supreme Arbitration Court of the Russian Federation dated June 3, 2014 No. 1487/14).

Let's sum it up

The vacation schedule for 2021 must be drawn up and approved no later than December 17, 2021.
Immediately after the vacation schedule is approved, employees must be familiarized with it.
When drawing up a vacation schedule, you should take into account legal restrictions on dividing vacation into parts and the right of certain categories of employees to vacation at a time convenient for them.
For violations committed by the employer when drawing up a vacation schedule, as well as for its absence, fines and/or suspension of activities are provided (Article 5.27 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation).

Fill out form

The State Statistics Committee of the Russian Federation, by its Resolution No. 1 dated January 5, 2004, determined the unified form T-7. It is used in most companies. This form is convenient, it is integrated into all accounting programs and is easy to fill out. The presence of T-7 does not mean that a company cannot use its own type of schedule. It is enough to approve your unique form by order of the company.

T-7 forms can be found here.

The schedule must contain the following columns:

department name,
job title,
Employee's name,
Personnel Number,
amount of days,
start and end dates of vacation.

The columns can be supplemented if necessary, for example, you can distinguish between main, additional or collective leave. Additional in this case may be paid leave left over from the previous year and for some reason not used by the employee.

The vacation schedule includes only vacation dates with pay. It does not indicate other types of leave (at your own expense, study, etc.).