Sandwich leave policy: what it means, how to count it, and sample policy text
Under a sandwich leave policy, weekly offs and holidays that fall between two days of leave are counted as leave too. With Saturday and Sunday off, leave on Friday and Monday costs 4 days, because the weekend is sandwiched between them. Below are worked examples, where the rule does and doesn't apply, and wording you can adapt for your own policy.
Resonics Technologies · Updated
How to count leave under the sandwich rule
All examples assume Sunday is the weekly off and Saturday is a working day, which is common in Indian field and service businesses.
| Leave taken | Off days in between | Without sandwich rule | With sandwich rule |
|---|---|---|---|
| Saturday to Monday | Sunday | 2 days | 3 days |
| Friday to Tuesday | Sunday | 4 days | 5 days |
| Tuesday to Thursday, with a public holiday on Wednesday | Wednesday | 2 days | 3 days |
| Monday to Wednesday | None (Sunday is before the leave starts) | 3 days | 3 days |
| Thursday to Saturday, before a Sunday | None (Sunday is after the leave ends) | 3 days | 3 days |
If both Saturday and Sunday are off, leave from Friday to Monday is 2 days without the rule and 4 days with it.
The rule is simple to state and easy to get wrong by hand, especially when a public holiday falls inside a long leave.
Why companies use it, and why employees dislike it
- For the company: it stops two days of leave from turning into a four-day absence around every weekend and festival. In a service business, that means fewer engineers for breakdown calls on the days around a long weekend.
- For employees: leave balances run out faster, and it feels like being charged for days they were never supposed to work. Expect pushback if you introduce it without notice.
Some companies apply it only to holidays and not to weekly offs, or only to loss-of-pay leave. Either works, as long as the policy says so.
Sample sandwich leave clause
Adapt the brackets to your company, and have it reviewed before you publish it.
Sandwich leave. When an employee takes leave on the working days immediately before and after a weekly off or a declared holiday, the weekly off or holiday in between will also be counted as leave.
This applies only when the days on both sides are full-day leave. Weekly offs and holidays at the start or end of a leave period are not counted.
[Optional: This rule applies to [all leave types / loss-of-pay leave only].]
Example: an employee who takes leave on Saturday and Monday, with Sunday as the weekly off, will be charged 3 days of leave.
This rule takes effect from [date] and applies to leave requests submitted on or after that date.
Rolling it out without a fight
- Announce it at least a month before it starts, with two or three worked examples like the table above.
- Apply it only to leave applied for after the start date, not to leave already approved.
- Show the day count when the employee applies, before they submit, so the deduction is never a surprise at month end.