Vacation Leave
The number of vacation leave hours entitled to an employee are more complex than it appears. Although most full-time employees have a similar entitlement, this will vary based on multiple factors:
- the employee's schedule and average working hours
- the number of public holidays falling on off days
- pro-rata calculations for joiners and leavers
- non-accrual of leave during unpaid periods
This can often be a headache. Buddy does most of the above automatically, and we sum up most scenarios in the following explanations.
A simplified understanding of how Malta leave entitlement works is explained in the video below using a spreadsheet.
Note that this video assumed Monday to Friday employees. Employees with other salary structures or
Vacation Leave for Full-Timers
Full-time employees are entitled to 24 days (Four weeks and four days) of vacation leave, and any hours in lieu of Public Holidays that fall on off days.
This means that for Monday to Friday employees working 40 hours per week, in 2024, they would a total of 240 hours of Vacation Leave:
192 hours (24 days) + 48 hours (6 days in-lieu of PH) = 240 hours VL
Hours in Lieu of Public Holidays
The number of hours being given in lieu of Public Holidays will depend on the employee's working days and weekly hours.
Non-Working Days
Buddy will add leave entitlement for public holidays that fall outside of the employee's schedule. This means that if an employee works Wednesday to Sunday, then it's the Public Holidays that fall on Monday and Tuesday that will be added to the leave balance.
This is determined by the working days in the Salary Details
Average Working Day
An employee who works 40 hours across 6 days (Monday - Saturday) a week has a daily average working day of 6.667 hours.
In 240, there are three Public Holidays on Sunday, so in such case, the employee would have 192 hours + 20 hours in lieu, totalling 212 hours of Vacation Leave.
Employees without Working Days
For employees who do not have any fixed working days, their leave entitlement will simply be 192 hours, as the public holidays in lieu cannot be predetermined.
One way to remedy this is to enable the leave option "Add Public Holidays to Leave Balance" so that their balance would increase to 304 (see: Leave Settings)
Other options require the importation of Timesheets for accurate data. This would allow companies to use tools like Calculate Backdated Public Holiday (TOIL) or advanced Time & Attendance Rules. Leave Settings such as "Auto-Apply for Public Holiday Leave" and "Do Not Add Public Holiday Leave on Worked Days" can be useful in such scenarios.
Vacation Leave for Fixed Hours (Part-Time / Reduced Hours)
For employees working fixed hours other than 40 per week (e.g. 35 hours per week), Buddy will use a similar formula and calculate the pro-rata amount.
For example, an employee working 7 hours per day between Mon-Fri will have 210 hours total of vacation leave (168 hours standard, and 42 hours in lieu of Public Holiday).
Pro-Rata Entitlements for Engaged or Terminated Employees
When employees are engaged or terminated mid-year, they are only due a pro-rata amount of leave. This will be calculated as
(working days in employment * average hours) / 2080 hours * 192 hrs
The working days will be based on the weekdays set in the employee's Salary Details. For employees working other than 40 hours, a pro-rata amount of 192 hours will be used instead.
Pro-Rata Entitlement of Public Holidays
Public Holidays falling on non-working days will be automatically added to the balance in full if they are within the engagement period. They do not impact the pro-rata calculation in the above formula.
Pro-Rata Entitlement of Employees without Working Days
For employees without any working days, we will instead use:
calendar days in employment * (weekly hours / 7 days / 2080 hrs) * 192 hrs
Practical Example of Vacation Leave on Termination
An employee works 40 hours Monday to Friday but was terminated on 31st January 2023. Their standard leave hours are calculated using the formula discussed earlier:
(22 working days * 8 daily hours) / 2080 annual hours in 2023 * 192 hrs = 16.25 hours
Since the 1st of January 2023 was a Public Holiday that fell on a Sunday, outside the employee's schedule, it is also added to their balance. Therefore, the employee has:
16.25 pro-rata hours + 8 hours in lieu of Public Holiday = 24.25 hours of VL
Other Related Articles
There are other factors that contribute to the leave balance. For instance, employees on unpaid leave do not accrue vacation leave. For relevant cases, we suggest reading the following articles: