Annual Leave

According to Malawi’s Employment Act, annual leave is intended to allow employees to have some rest from their working environment. Annual leave varies according to grades in both the civil service and the private sector. After an employee gets annual leave, he or she is supposed to receive a leave grant on full pay.

• Leave is granted by an employer to an employee, in consultation with the employee as from a date determined by the employer but not later than six months after the end of each year worked. In other words, the leave entitlement by an employee shall fall due on the anniversary date the employee was confirmed in employment.

• Depending on grades, which range from junior to senior officers both in the civil service and the private sector, employees can receive either 30 leave days, 25 leave days, 20 leave days or 15 leave days. For example, an officer working in the private sector in the commercial city of Blantyre says he receives about K5,000 leave grant and has 15 leave days.

• Most institutions in Malawi do not pay a leave grant outright but it is added to one’s monthly salary. A leave grant is payable depending on grades and is payable only once a year.

• Annual leave however, shall not be concurrent with any period of sick leave, or notice of termination of contract of employment.

• Leave may not be accumulated without the prior approval of your employer. This can vary, depending on the sector one works in. It is best to find this out in terms of one’s employment conditions.

• Annual leave is extended by one working day with full pay for each public holiday which falls within the employee’s period of leave and which falls on a day which otherwise would have been an ordinary working day for the employee.

• Upon termination of employment, the company shall pay the employee the remuneration in respect of any leave which accrued.