If you are planning to meet your Russian girlfriend somewhere out of her home country for a vacation together, she would probably need to take time off work. It could be either paid annual leave (or part of it) or an unpaid time off duty, if she is able to get it, subject to the employer’s approval.

Russia has one of the longest paid annual leave entitlements in the world. Citizens have 28 days of paid holidays annually. Some categories are entitled to even longer vacations paid by the employer.

Paid annual leave in Russia

The right to take time off work is one of constitutional entitlements of working citizens in Russia, PPT.ru explains.

However, even among locals not everyone is aware how exactly the time and payment for it are calculated. Let’s have a closer look at the legislation, in particular the RF (Russian Federation) Labour Code.

Article 115 of the RF Labour Code (LC) can help to find out what Russian workers are entitled to under the law.

The law states that an annual leave cannot be shorter than 28 days. But is it really so?

What about more specific cases, for example: Are workers able to use a part of their holidays when required? Which categories can get longer vacations?

28 days of annual leave per year

RF Labour Code (RFLC) identifies the minimum number of the days that employees are entitled to take off work.

But are these working or calendar days?

It turns out that the legislation talks about calendar days.

An employee who wants to take 2 weeks off work as part of the paid yearly entitlement is allowed to have the first day off, for example, on Monday, and then has to be back to the office on Monday in a fortnight.

The worker’s pay for this period is determined by the average wage in the past 12 months.

However, public holidays are not included in the calculation and would therefore increase the time of the holidays that can be taken in one go.

In other words, if the 2-week period of a paid vacation includes one public holiday, the worker comes back to work not on Monday, but on Tuesday in 2 weeks and 1 day.

Surprisingly, this additional day of the leave is not paid, the amount of holiday pay is the same either for 14 days or 15 (according to the article 112 of RF LC).

People in Russia are allowed to take off 4 weeks for a yearly vacation.

Additional days off work

Under the Labour Code, Russian employers are allowed to give their workers additional days off work.

How it’s done should be specified in the employment agreement between the company and the employee.

According to the legislation, if an employer gives the worker extra time off, it must be paid, unlike 28 constitutional days, from the company’s profits.

Extended and additional annual leave

Some types of employees are entitled by law to extended time off work and employment agreements (if any) cannot denounce such statutory benefits.

The following types of workers are entitled to longer holidays (all in calendar days:

• Workers aged under 18: 31 (article 267 of RFLC).
• People on disability: 30 (article 23 of the Federal Law # 181).
• Teachers and lecturers: 42-56 calendar days, depending on the position and type of the educational institution (article 334 of RFLC and article 47 of the Federal Law #273).
• Scientists with a doctoral degree who work in state-funded institutions: 48 (government resolution # 949). Doctoral degrees in Russia are one step higher than regular PhD (which are called “candidate of sciences”).
• PhD holders (“candidates of sciences”) working in state-funded institutions: 36 (government resolution # 949).
• Medical workers working under a risk of contracting AIDS: 36 (government resolution # 391);
• Government civil servants: 30 or more, depending on the length of the service (article 46 of the Federal Law # 79).
• Workers of the public prosecutor’s offices and investigation committees: 30 days exclusive of travel time to holiday destinations.

As per the article 321 RFLC, residents of the Russian Far North and similar in status areas are entitled to an additional vacation time, as below:

• Residents of the Far North: 24 days.
• Residents of areas with the status equal to the regions of the Far North: 16.
• Residents of some other northern areas (specified by RFLC): 8.

Moreover, RF Labour Code specifies a few more types of workers entitled to extra days of paid vacation, such as:

• Employees working in harmful and dangerous working conditions.
• People working extra long hours by the nature of the job.
• Performing work of a special nature.
• Some other categories.

The legislation allows workers to take additional time off if the employer agrees.

Annual leave can be divided into parts

RF Labour Code does not require employees to use the entire period of annual vacation entitlement in one go.

The leave can be divided into parts in a way that at least one part is no shorter than 14 calendar days.

It’s not too hard to divide 28 calendar days into required parts, and it perfectly suits both parties: Employees and employers.

The legislation allows the employee to divide the second half of his or her yearly vacation into various length holidays (if needed, even one day at a time can be taken).

But if the worker needs to have all 28 days of the paid leave at once, the employer is obliged to provide it in full and has no right to demand the division of the time off.

Compensation for unused yearly leave

According to the article 127 of RFLC, workers cannot be financially compensated for unused yearly leave.

Monetary compensation is possible only in case of the employee’s resignation.

The proper calculation of such amount takes into account all unused time of the annual vacation for the entire period of the worker’s employment.

Nevertheless, the above policy refers only to 28 days of standard yearly leave. Most types of unused additional holidays can be compensated. The exceptions include people working in harmful conditions whose unused 7 extra days off they are eligible for under the law cannot be reimbursed.

Monetary compensation for unused vacations is possible only in case of resignation.

Not allowing an employee to take the yearly leave is against the law

In Russia the employer is obliged to grant the annual vacation time to each employee (regardless of the employee’s wish to take it).

If this is not done for 2 consecutive years, the employer can be held liable under article 5.27 of the Administrative Code of the Russian Federation.

The fine in this case could be from 30,000 to 50,000 rubles (USD 460-770).

What do you think about Russian annual leave? Is it a better legislation than you have at home or worse?

Read also:

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