Sri Lanka is a country that allows one of the highest numbers of paid leaves around the world. Sri Lankans benefit from a variety of leaves including weekly holidays, annual leaves, casual leaves, public holidays and Poya days. There are additional maternity benefits for pre- and post-natal mothers. Sometimes international investors are hesitant to bring their businesses to Sri Lanka due to this reason, however, there are ways to stay Compliant with the local labor laws and still reap the benefits of high-quality low-cost talent available in Sri Lanka.
The writer has included original clauses from the act itself in blue colour for the reader’s own interpretation and scrutiny. Explanations and examples are offered in black text for more complex clauses.
Since there are a lot of particulars and complexities to explain we have divided the content between 5 articles. This article will focus on weekly holidays, to get a full understanding of all your leave entitlements please refer to the other four, Annual leaves, casual leaves, public holidays and poya days via these links.
Weekly holidays
“5. (1) Every person employed in or about the business of any shop or office shall, in respect of each week, be allowed one whole day and one half-holiday. Such holidays shall be so allowed with full remuneration if such person has worked for not less than twenty-eight hours, exclusive of any period of overtime work, during that week :
Provided that regulations may be made modifying the preceding provisions of this subsection in their application to persons employed in work of any specified class or description, by the substitution, for the period of twenty-eight hours, of some shorter or longer period.”
(Shop and Office Act, § 11, 17 of 1965)
Every professional served under the shop and office act are entitled to one full day of leave and a half day of leave as the weekly rest period or holiday if they have completed at least 28 hours of work in that week. You cannot count overtime hours when calculating these 28 hours. There is no specification as to what dates these weekly holidays should fall on. Due to the ease of adopting the universal norm of having Saturday and Sunday as the weekend days, many employers provide these 1 ½ days of holidays during the weekend. This law also allows employers to require their employees to work 5 full workdays, and 1 half day every week. This law should be exercised on the premise that the number of hours worked per day will not exceed 8 per day. Let’s look at a few examples,
Example 1
An organization that works 5 days per week can start work at 9 am and finish work at 6.30am allowing for an hour for lunch and 30 minutes for tea. This way the number of hours worked per day will be 8. Since this organization works 5 days a week, the total number of hours worked per week will be 40 hours. Which is well below the legal maximum of 45 days per week. This can look something like this,
- Monday – 9am – 6.30 am (8 hours work & 1.30 hours of break)
- Tuesday– 9am – 6.30 am (8 hours work & 1.30 hours of break)
- Wednesday– 9am – 6.30 am (8 hours work & 1.30 hours of break)
- Thursday– 9am – 6.30 am (8 hours work & 1.30 hours of break)
- Friday– 9am – 6.30 am (8 hours work & 1.30 hours of break)
- Saturday – Holiday
- Sunday – Holiday
Total no.of hours per week = 40 hours//
Or it can even be like this,
- Monday – Holiday
- Tuesday– 9am – 6.30 am (8 hours work & 1.30 hours of break)
- Wednesday– 9am – 6.30 am (8 hours work & 1.30 hours of break)
- Thursday– 9am – 6.30 am (8 hours work & 1.30 hours of break)
- Friday– 9am – 6.30 am (8 hours work & 1.30 hours of break)
- Saturday – 9am – 6.30 am (8 hours work & 1.30 hours of break)
- Sunday – Holiday
Total no.of hours per week = 40 hours//
Example 2
Another company who wants to take full advantage of the maximum number of hours as set out by the act can set up their work week as follows,
- Monday – 9am – 6.30 am (8 hours work & 1.30 hours of break)
- Tuesday– 9am – 6.30 am (8 hours work & 1.30 hours of break)
- Wednesday– 9am – 6.30 am (8 hours work & 1.30 hours of break)
- Thursday– 9am – 6.30 am (8 hours work & 1.30 hours of break)
- Friday– 9am – 6.30 am (8 hours work & 1.30 hours of break)
- Saturday – 9am – 3pm (5 hours work & 1 hour of break)
- Sunday – Holiday
Total no.of hours per week = 45 hours//
“(2) The holidays due under subsection (1) in respect of any week shall be allowed either in that week or in the week immediately succeeding :”
This weekly holiday entitlement is redeemable either in the week in question or in the immediately succeeding week. But cannot be carried forward any further than that
“Provided that the holidays so due in respect of any four consecutive weeks in any month may instead be, with the prior written sanction of the Commissioner, allowed in accumulation at any time in that month (one full holiday being so allowed in lieu of two half holidays so due) :
Provided further that the Commissioner shall not grant such sanction unless he is satisfied that it is necessary so to do by reason of the nature of the business or of unforeseen circumstances.”
However, if you are running a business which requires employees to work consecutive weeks without any weekly holidays, the labour commissioner will grant you special permission to aggregate the weekly holiday entitlements of 4 consecutive weeks of an employee and grant them at once. You can also make one full holiday by aggregating two half holidays for the purpose of this clause. Of course, You will also be needed to produce evidence that it is required to do so due to the nature of your business or due to unforeseen circumstances
Example 1:
If your business must work for 4 consecutive weeks without weekly holidays, the employee will receive 4 weekly holidays accumulated at once. With 1 and ½ days per week, his accumulated holiday will be of min 6 days.
“(3) In respect of each day in any week on which a person has been on leave or on holiday with full remuneration allowed to him by the employer (whether in accordance with the requirements of section 6 or section 7 or Part 1A or in excess of such requirements), that employee shall be deemed, for the purposes of subsection (1) of this section, to have worked for the normal period for which he would have worked if he had not been on such leave or holiday.”
This clause dictates that the fact that an employee took such weekly holidays doesn’t make them unpaid days off. He should receive full remuneration for the weekly holidays and it should be considered that the employee has worked the normal period for that week.
In summary, Sri Lanka’s labor laws mandate one full day and one half-day off per week for employees who work a minimum of 28 hours. Employers have flexibility in scheduling these weekly holidays to suit business operations, although the typical weekend pattern is commonly followed. Special arrangements can be made for continuous operations with approval from the labor commissioner. Compliance with these laws fosters work-life balance, legal adherence, and taps into Sri Lanka’s skilled workforce.
