Employees of our client filed a suit in the Petrodvortsovy district court of St.-Petersburg, requesting that the court recognize actions of our client in allegedly “forcing” the usage of all collective annual paid leave in 2016 during a certain timeframe to be illegal in nature. The suit asked to recognize this leave period mandated by the employer as downtime instead, reinstating vacation time, and requested further compensation for moral damages and for legal expenses.
The case was assigned the number 2-3741/2016 – M-3183/2016. Aspectum represented the interests of an employer.
As followed from the evidence of the case provided by the employer in accordance with article 123 of the Labor code of the Russian Federation, it was determined that the sequence of paid leave for all employees was according to a schedule approved two weeks before January 1st of 2016. A few employees did not agree with the schedule and filed a written complaint to the employer which led to the employer agreeing to make adjustments. Paid annual leave for employees who filed complaints were divided into different time periods, however, not all their scheduling requests were not met. One such employees used the vacation for 2016 in full in accordance with the adjusted schedule, and then, referring to the “forced” nature of this leave, demanded the employer recognize it as downtime.
The court did not recognize any grounds for the plaintiff’s claim of extension or transfer of the collective paid annual leave in accordance with article 124 of the Labor code of the Russian Federation and dismissed his claim as the actions of our client did not violate the law or requirements.
