policy · Company
Leave & Time-Off Policy
Leave & Time-Off Policy
Purpose
Define Blinto's paid and unpaid leave entitlements, planning requirements, auto-approval boundaries, carry-forward treatment, and exception rules.
The operating workflow for requesting, notifying, aligning delivery, and handing over work is owned by Leave Request & Handover.
Core Principle
Leave within an employee's entitlement is a right, not a discretionary favor from management.
When an eligible planned-leave request meets the required balance, notice, duration, and other policy conditions, the HRMS should approve it automatically. Team Lead, People Operations/HR, and CEO receive visibility; they are not routine approvers of qualifying planned leave.
Where normal conditions are not met, the request moves to the manual exception workflow rather than being represented as automatically approved.
No policy may reduce an employee's stronger entitlement under applicable Bangladesh law, employment contract, or another formally approved benefit.
Regular Full-Time Leave Entitlements
Casual Leave (CL)
- 10 paid days per calendar year.
- Intended for personal matters, short breaks, and ordinary short-term personal needs.
- May be taken as a half day where applicable.
- Does not carry forward into the next calendar year.
Sick Leave (SL)
- 14 paid days per calendar year.
- Intended for illness, medical need, or health emergency.
- Does not carry forward into the next calendar year.
- Sick leave is notification-based; an employee should not have to wait for ordinary advance approval before responding to a genuine health need.
- For 3 or more consecutive sick days, People Operations may require reasonable medical evidence/documentation.
Earned / Annual Leave (EL)
- Blinto provides/accrues up to 18 paid EL days per full calendar year, subject to applicable statutory accrual and any stronger legal entitlement.
- EL is intended for planned rest, vacation, travel, and longer personal time away.
- The HRMS should display the employee's actual available/accrued EL balance rather than assuming every employee has the full annual maximum available immediately.
- First-year/partial-year treatment should follow applicable accrual, service eligibility, and approved employment rules.
Earned Leave Carry-Forward
Blinto's operating design is one additional calendar year of carry-forward for unused eligible EL.
Example: eligible unused 2026 EL may be available during 2027. Carried 2026 EL does not automatically become a new 2028 carry-forward bucket under the company policy design.
The HRMS should maintain separate current-year and carry-forward balances and consume the oldest eligible EL first.
Before any carried EL is treated as expired, People Operations must verify that the proposed treatment complies with applicable statutory, contractual, and employment requirements. Nothing in this policy authorizes forfeiture of an entitlement that applicable law requires to be accumulated, preserved, encashed, or otherwise settled.
People Operations and Team Leads should proactively support employees in taking accumulated EL rather than allowing avoidable balances to build up.
Special Leave
Maternity Leave
Eligible employees receive maternity leave according to the applicable Bangladesh statutory entitlement and eligibility rules. The current company baseline is 120 paid days where legally/contractually applicable.
Where the timing is reasonably foreseeable, the employee should submit the required information/documentation at least 30 calendar days before the expected leave start. Genuine medical or childbirth-related timing changes do not remove the underlying entitlement.
Paternity Leave
Blinto provides 7 paid working days of paternity leave as a company benefit for eligible employees.
Where reasonably foreseeable, submit at least 7 calendar days before the expected start. Unforeseen childbirth timing or emergency circumstances should be handled through notification rather than penalized for insufficient notice.
Bereavement Leave
Blinto provides 3 paid working days for a qualifying immediate-family bereavement. The employee should notify the Team Lead/People Operations as soon as reasonably possible.
Wedding Leave
Blinto provides 3 paid working days for the employee's own wedding. Submit at least 21 calendar days before the leave start for auto-approval.
Public Holidays
Public holidays are governed by Blinto's official annual holiday calendar and do not consume CL, SL, or EL balances.
Unpaid Leave
Unpaid leave is an exception rather than an automatic entitlement under this company policy. It always requires manual review/approval, including when an employee requests time away beyond an available paid-leave balance.
Auto-Approval Matrix
| Leave type | Auto-approved when | Maximum auto-approved duration | Normal maximum request |
|---|---|---|---|
| Earned / Annual Leave | Eligible + sufficient available/accrued EL + submitted ≥21 calendar days before start | 5 working days | 10 working days |
| Casual Leave — 1 day | Eligible + sufficient CL + submitted ≥3 working days before start | 1 working day | 1 working day under this rule |
| Casual Leave — 2–3 days | Eligible + sufficient CL + submitted ≥10 calendar days before start | 3 working days | 3 consecutive working days |
| Half-Day Casual Leave | ≥0.5 CL available + submitted ≥3 working days before | 0.5 day | 0.5 day |
| Sick Leave | Eligible + available SL + reported through the required notification process | 2 consecutive days without extended-leave evidence | Up to available entitlement; 3+ consecutive days may require medical evidence |
| Maternity Leave | Eligibility established + standard information/documentation supplied with ≥30 days' notice where reasonably possible | Standard entitlement | Standard entitlement |
| Paternity Leave | Eligible + submitted ≥7 calendar days before where foreseeable | 7 working days | 7 working days |
| Bereavement Leave | Qualifying event + notification as soon as reasonably possible | 3 working days | 3 working days |
| Wedding Leave | Eligible + submitted ≥21 calendar days before | 3 working days | 3 working days |
| Public Holiday | Automatic; no request required | Per calendar | Per calendar |
| Unpaid Leave | Never auto-approved | 0 | Manual exception process |
Three HRMS Outcomes
1. Auto-Approved
Use when all applicable eligibility, balance, notice, duration, and policy conditions are met.
The system should immediately record the leave and notify the employee, Team Lead, People Operations/HR, and CEO.
2. Manual Approval Required
Use when the requested leave is potentially valid but falls outside an auto-approval boundary—for example:
- insufficient advance notice;
- EL request of 6–10 working days;
- exceptional extension of a special leave;
- unusual eligibility/documentation issue;
- another policy exception.
Manual review does not mean the employee has done something wrong. It means delivery/eligibility/exception handling requires human alignment.
3. Not Requestable Under This Leave Type
Use when the request violates a hard boundary for that category—for example:
- CL request longer than 3 consecutive working days;
- requested paid leave exceeds the available balance and no applicable entitlement supports it;
- request uses an inapplicable leave category.
Where appropriate, the HRMS should offer a valid alternative, such as EL or an Unpaid Leave request, rather than leaving the employee without a route.
Manual Approval Ownership
For ordinary short-notice or duration exceptions:
Team Lead → People Operations/HR
The Team Lead assesses delivery/coverage implications; People Operations validates entitlement, records, and consistent policy treatment.
CEO approval is reserved for material exceptions, significant unpaid/extended leave, or another case requiring a company-level decision. CEO visibility does not make the CEO a routine leave approver.
Auto-Approved Leave & Business Conflicts
A Team Lead cannot unilaterally cancel an auto-approved leave simply because it later becomes inconvenient.
If a genuine material delivery conflict exists, the Team Lead should discuss it directly with the employee and attempt to mutually agree on an alternative. If agreement cannot be reached, escalate to People Operations/HR for resolution consistent with employee entitlement and applicable law.
Leave Planning
Employees should use planned leave responsibly and provide the required notice whenever the need is foreseeable.
Team Leads are responsible for capacity planning, backup coverage, and reducing single-person dependency so legitimate leave does not become a recurring delivery crisis.
People Operations should monitor unused EL and proactively prompt employees and leads to plan time off before carried balances approach their applicable expiry/settlement point.
Probationary Employees & Interns
The current baseline carried from the approved People framework is:
- Sick Leave: 2 days during the probation/internship period;
- Casual Leave: 1 day during the probation/internship period;
- Earned/Annual Leave: not part of the standard probation/internship benefit unless required by applicable law, contract, or approved exception.
Where statutory entitlement provides a stronger benefit, the stronger entitlement applies.