A weekend vacation in 2025. What you need to know

Deputies of the State Duma from the LDPR faction have come up with a legislative initiative that could change the usual procedure for calculating vacation time. They suggested not including weekends in the total number of days of annual paid leave. Read the Izvestia article about how holidays are calculated on non-working days and why it may be beneficial to include weekends in vacations.

LDPR deputies on weekend vacations

According to the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, the duration of basic paid leave is 28 calendar days. By agreement with the employer, this period can be divided into several parts. The only prerequisite is that one of these parts must be continuous and last at least 14 calendar days. These two weeks include both working days and weekends.

In this regard, representatives of the LDPR party, led by the leader of the faction Leonid Slutsky, sent to the government of the Russian Federation a proposal to exclude days off from the annual basic or annual additional paid leave, amending Article 120 of the Labor Code.

According to Slutsky, the current legislation works against Russians, since part of the vacation is already a weekend off, which is required by law for workers.

"Calculating vacations in calendar days, rather than in working days, we come to the conclusion that it is simply impossible to take off the entire duration of labor holidays without eating it up with days off," he said.

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Who will be able to claim payments

How is the weekend vacation calculated in 2025?

In accordance with the current labor legislation, employees have the opportunity to split their annual leave. The key rule prescribed in the Labor Code states that at least 14 of the 28 days of vacation must be used in a row. This means that an employee must take a continuous two-week rest once a year.

The law does not specify which day this vacation should start from. The employee has the right to start resting both from the working day (for example, from Monday) and from the weekend (from Saturday or Sunday).

As for the remaining 14 days of vacation, their distribution is carried out by agreement with the employer. By agreement of the parties, the vacation can be divided in almost any convenient way.:

• Rest only on working days. For example, an employee can take a vacation from Monday to Friday, and spend Saturday and Sunday as a regular weekend.;
• Holidays with weekends included. You can arrange a vacation so that it covers both working days and weekends (for example, split it into two vacations per week).

Is it possible to arrange a vacation exclusively for weekends

The Labor Code of the Russian Federation does not explicitly prohibit the provision of annual paid leave only on weekends. However, this issue is still controversial in the personnel department.

The position of official departments:

• The Federal Service for Labor and Employment (Rostrud) is of the opinion that if such registration suits both the employee and the employer, then they have the right to use the remaining 14 days of vacation in this way.
• The Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of the Russian Federation considers that the provision of annual paid leave exclusively on weekends is contrary to the spirit of labor legislation, the purpose of which is to provide an employee with a full and uninterrupted rest. Therefore, an employer who has issued a vacation for an employee exclusively for weekends may be held administratively liable.

How are non-working holidays taken into account during the holidays?

An employee has the right to arrange a vacation in such a way that it will include a non—working holiday - there is no prohibition on this. Moreover, if an official holiday falls during the vacation period, which is recognized as non-working, it is not counted in the number of vacation days.

This rule applies to:

• 112 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation (for example, New Year's holidays, Defender of the Fatherland Day, March 8, etc.).
• Days that are declared non-working at the level of a specific subject of the Russian Federation (for example, Republic Day in Tatarstan).

For example, in 2025, an employee decided to take a vacation from January 6 to January 12. These dates include three official holidays: January 6, 7, and 8. Therefore, instead of seven days of vacation, the employee will spend only four.

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Employers and HR departments should arrange vacation and payment schedules in advance.

Holidays at your own expense on weekends

Unpaid leave is granted to an employee at his personal request for a period determined in agreement with the employer. Unlike basic paid leave, such "vacations" include all weekends and non-working holidays and are not extended by public holidays.

Why it might be beneficial to take a Weekend vacation

Since the standard annual leave is calculated in calendar days, this creates a certain financial nuance. If an employee takes seven days off, they will receive vacation pay not only for the "working" part of the week, but also for the weekend. Thus, the payout will be higher, but the number of available days of paid vacation will decrease.

In such a situation, the employee should set their own priorities: to rest longer or get higher vacation pay.

Earlier in Russia, it was proposed to grant veterans the right to unpaid leave.

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