How many casual leave days does a Sri Lankan government employee get per year?

21 days a calendar year, subject to a maximum of 6 days at any one time, under section 5 of Chapter XII. Casual leave may only be spent inside Sri Lanka. No minimum service is required, and the Leave Handbook states in terms that there is no provision for granting casual leave on a proportionate basis on any occasion — so an officer appointed in November still has the full 21 days available that year.

What is the difference between casual leave and vacation leave in the public service?

Casual leave is 21 days a year, capped at 6 days at a time, for use in Sri Lanka only, and it cannot be carried forward. Vacation leave is 24 days a year (28 for an officer required to serve all seven days), has no per-occasion cap, may be spent in or out of the island, and unused days carry forward with your service.

Are Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays deducted from a government officer's leave?

It depends on the kind of leave and where you spend it. For casual leave, and for vacation leave spent inside Sri Lanka, Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays are set aside and never debited. For vacation leave spent outside the island, and for any half-pay or no-pay leave, every one of those days is counted as leave. That single distinction is the most expensive misunderstanding in Chapter XII.

I was ill Monday to Friday and two of those days were public holidays. How many days come off my leave?

Three, not five. Sub-section 8:3 of Chapter XII, applied by the Director-General of Establishments in the Ministry's own published FAQ, sets aside public holidays falling inside vacation leave spent within the island. Five calendar days, less nothing for weekly days off because Monday to Friday contains none, less the two holidays, leaves three days debited.

What is lapsed leave (ඉකුත් නිවාඩු) and when can I use it?

Lapsed leave is the vacation leave you saved in earlier years, held under section 10. It opens only once the accumulated vacation leave you can use this year is exhausted. Section 10 lists the occasions: a family member's illness or death, a religious ceremony for either, your own marriage, a contagious disease in your household, a court summons unconnected with your duties, and your own illness.

How much lapsed leave can I take in one go?

On non-medical grounds, lapsed leave granted over two consecutive years cannot exceed 48 days, or 56 for a seven-day-week officer. On medical grounds the limit is 96 days, or 112, because the Ministry Secretary may approve a second grant within the same year. Both figures come from sub-sections 10:1:4 and 10:1:6 as revised by PA Circular 18/2022.

Can a government servant take no-pay leave to work abroad without losing seniority and pension?

Yes, under PA Circular 14/2022. It allows no-pay leave to be spent in or out of Sri Lanka up to a total of five years, and provides that the period counts as service for calculating seniority and pension. That is a deliberate departure from section 16 itself, under which no-pay leave counts for neither pension nor promotion. Executive Grade officers must be confirmed in their service first.

How long is maternity leave for a Sri Lankan government officer?

84 government working days at full pay per live birth under section 18, then a further 84 days at half pay, then 84 at no pay. The full-pay stage counts working days only; the half-pay and no-pay stages count Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays as leave. You may not report back to duty until four weeks after the birth.

Do teachers get vacation leave like other government officers?

No. Under section 24 a teacher receives school holidays in place of vacation leave, and normally takes vacation leave only during them. Casual leave is the same 21 days as any other officer. If leave is needed during a school term after casual leave runs out, up to one month at full pay may be granted in any one year. A teacher has no entitlement to lapsed leave at all.

How much compulsory service do I owe after study leave?

Full-pay study leave abroad of a month or more carries four times the leave period, never less than a year and never more than ten. Full-pay study leave in Sri Lanka of six months or more carries twice the period, capped at five years. No-pay study leave in the island of a year or more carries a period equal to the leave. Leave under section 16 carries twice the period.

Sri Lanka · Public service

Sri Lanka Government Employee Leave Calculator (Establishments Code)

Find a public officer's casual, vacation and lapsed leave for the year under Chapter XII of the Establishments Code, and see how many days an absence actually costs once Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays are handled the way the Code handles them. Every rule carries its section and circular.

By Induwara Ashinsana— Executive Director, Ryzera TechnologiesUpdated Sep 22, 2026

Work out your leave positionEstablishments Code, Chapter XII

Verified against the Leave Handbook

Officer category

Chapter XII treats several grades separately. Pick the one on your appointment letter.

Your working week

An officer required to serve all seven days draws 28 days a year instead of 24, and has no weekly day off to set aside.

Non-staff (subordinate) officer — Sections 5, 8 and 10. The general rules apply in full: 21 days casual leave, vacation leave under section 8, and lapsed leave under section 10.

Try a case

Kind of leave

This decides whether Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays are debited.

Where you will spend it

Vacation leave spent outside the island counts every calendar day.

First day of leave

The first calendar day you will be absent.

Last day of leave

Inclusive — the last day before you report back.

Public holidays inside the run

Count only holidays falling on days you would otherwise have worked. One landing on a Saturday or Sunday is already set aside.

Calendar days away

Weekly days off inside

Set aside

Public holidays inside

Set aside

Deducted from your leave

60% of the calendar span

5 − 0 weekly days off − 2 public holidays = 3 days deducted

Spent in the island, Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays are set aside [H §1.4], and [C18 6:1:2] repeats the rule for leave on a medical certificate. Spent outside the island, they are counted as leave [H §1.4], [H §7].

2 days of this absence are not debited to your entitlement.

Rest-day count cross-checked by two independent methods — a day-by-day calendar walk and a whole-weeks closed form — which agree.

Apply on form General 125 'A' for leave in the island, General 126 for leave abroad.A guide to published rules — the approving authority's decision under the Establishments Code is final.

How it works

Leave in the Sri Lankan public service is governed by Chapter XII of the Establishments Code, Volume I, issued by the Ministry of Public Administration and amended by a long run of Public Administration circulars. This tool reads the Ministry's own consolidated Leave Handbook and the English text of the circulars that revise the chapter. It performs arithmetic on the figures you enter and transcribes published rules; it estimates nothing.

The two entitlements

Section 5 gives 21 days of casual leave a calendar year, capped at 6 days at a time and usable inside Sri Lanka only. Section 8 gives vacation leave — 28 days a year to an officer required to serve all seven days of the week, 24 to everyone else. The difference between them matters: casual leave is never proportionate and never carries forward, while vacation leave accrues with service and carries forward indefinitely.

The counting rule

This is the step people get wrong, and it is the reason the tool exists. The rule turns on the kind of leave and where it is spent:

Casual leave, and vacation leave spent inside the island: Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays are set aside and never debited. Sub-section 6:1:2, as revised by PA Circular 18/2022, repeats the rule specifically for leave approved on a medical certificate, and adds the qualification that only holidays the officer is not specified to serve on are excluded — so an officer on a seven-day roster loses nothing to it.
Vacation leave spent outside the island: every Saturday, Sunday and public holiday inside the period is counted as leave.
Half-pay and no-pay leave: those days are counted too, wherever spent.

So the arithmetic is deducted = span − weekly days off − public holidays where they are set aside, and simply deducted = span where they are not. The calculator counts weekly days off two independent ways — a day-by-day walk of the calendar, and a whole-weeks closed form — and tells you when they agree, so the figure is not resting on a single line of arithmetic.

Accumulation and lapsed leave

Sub-section 8:2 lets you take the unused vacation leave of the current year and the preceding year together, to a maximum of 48 days, or 56 on a seven-day week. A staff officer taking leave abroad may reach back three years instead of two under sub-section 8:2:1 — 72 days, or 84. Anything beyond those ceilings falls into the section 10 lapsed pool, which opens only after the year's accumulated leave is spent, and is itself capped at 48 or 56 days over two consecutive years on ordinary grounds and 96 or 112 on medical grounds.

The year of first appointment

Casual leave is not reduced in the appointment year. Vacation leave is reckoned from the appointment date for the first two years, and the calendar year in which those two years end carries a stub of one twelfth of the annual entitlement for each remaining month. The worked example below reproduces the Handbook's own published table for this.

Worth knowing: An officer who does not report for duty on the first working day of the calendar year cannot have that day covered from the new year's casual or vacation leave. It may be approved only from the unavailed vacation leave of preceding years, or from lapsed leave where section 10 is satisfied (sub-section 1:11, added by PA Circular 18/2022).

Worked examples

A week of illness with two public holidays

Reconciled against the Ministry's own published FAQ answer

Non-staff officer, five-day working week, vacation leave in the island
Absent Monday 1 June to Friday 5 June → span = 5 calendar days
Weekly days off inside the span: 0 (Mon–Fri contains no Sat/Sun)
Public holidays inside the span: 2
Deducted = 5 − 0 − 2 = 3 days
Result: 3 days off your vacation leave, not 5

The same fortnight at home and abroad

The edge case that costs the most — identical dates, different answer

Absent Monday 1 June to Sunday 14 June → span = 14 calendar days
Saturdays 6 and 13 June, Sundays 7 and 14 June → 4 weekly days off
One public holiday on a working day
Spent in the island: 14 − 4 − 1 = 9 days deducted
Spent abroad: Sat, Sun and holidays all count → 14 days deducted
Result: the same absence costs 9 days or 14, purely by where it is spent

Entitlement in the year of a first appointment

Reproduces the Leave Handbook's own published table, section 2.3

Officer appointed 1 October 2013, standard 24-day entitlement
Vacation 2013-10-01 → 2014-09-30: 24 days (appointment-date basis)
Vacation 2014-10-01 → 2015-09-30: 24 days (appointment-date basis)
Vacation 2015-10-01 → 2015-12-31: 24 × 3/12 = 6 days (3 months left)
Vacation 2016-01-01 → 2016-12-31: 24 days (normal calendar year)
Casual leave in 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016: 21, 21, 21, 21 — never reduced

Eight months abroad on a staff officer's entitlement

Section 23, where a single request splits into three stages

Staff officer with 4 months of accumulated and commuted entitlement
Requests 8 months abroad
Months 1–4: full pay, from the officer's own entitlement (sub-s 8:2:1, s.21)
Months 5–6: inside the 6-month ceiling but beyond entitlement → half or no pay
Months 7–8: beyond the ceiling → Secretary, Public Administration, at half or no pay
Compulsory service under section 16 runs at twice the no-pay period

Every leave type in Chapter XII

The whole chapter side by side, so the question is answered even without filling the form. Apply on form General 125 'A' for leave in the island and form General 126 for leave abroad; your department keeps the register on form General 190.

Leave type	Amount	Pay basis	Approver	Section
Casual leave	21 days a year, 6 at a time	Full pay	Head of department	Section 5
Vacation leave	24 days a year, or 28 on a seven-day week	Full pay	Head of department	Section 8
Accumulated vacation leave	48 days, or 56 on a seven-day week	Full pay	Head of department	Sub-section 8:2
Accumulated vacation leave, staff officer abroad	72 days, or 84 on a seven-day week	Full pay	Head of department	Sub-section 8:2:1
Lapsed leave, non-medical grounds	48 days, or 56 on a seven-day week, over two consecutive years	Full pay	Head of department	Sub-section 10:1:4
Lapsed leave, medical grounds	96 days, or 112 on a seven-day week, over two consecutive years	Full pay	Head of department; Ministry Secretary for a second grant in one year	Sub-section 10:1:6
Compensatory leave	The day or the hours worked, taken within a year	Full pay	Head of department	Section 7
Accident on duty	Up to 1 year, then 6 months at half pay	Full pay, then half pay	Ministry Secretary	Section 9
Pre-retirement leave	Two preceding years' saved leave plus the current year's	Full pay	Head of department	Section 11
Special leave	As provided, by occasion	Full pay	Head of department	Section 12
Study leave, full pay	The course plus the shortest travelling time	Full pay	Head of department, under agreement and bond	Section 14
Study leave in the island, no pay	Up to 3 years, a year at a time	No pay	Head of department	Section 15
Foreign employment or study, no pay	Up to 5 years (employment), 3 years (study)	No pay	Head of department, under agreement	Section 16
Earned leave	In place of no-pay study leave only	Full pay	Head of department	Section 17
Maternity leave	84 working days, then 84 at half pay, then 84 at no pay	Full, half, then no pay	Head of department	Section 18
Paternity leave	3 days within three months of the birth	Full pay	Head of department	Sub-section 18:11
Adoption leave, female officer	Up to 4 months continuous	Full, then half, then no pay	Head of department	Sub-section 18:12
Leave to sit a government examination	First attempt only, no travelling allowance	Duty leave	Head of department	Section 19
Compulsory leave	As directed	Full pay once other leave is exhausted	Appointing authority	Section 20
Half-pay leave	One sixth of the service period, 12 months at a time	Half pay	Head of department	Section 21
No-pay leave	3 months, or up to a year for a spouse's or child's illness	No pay	Head of department; Ministry Secretary to spend it abroad	Section 22
Leave abroad	Up to 6 months at full pay; beyond that at half or no pay	Full pay to 6 months	Secretary, Public Administration, beyond 6 months	Section 23
Teachers' leave	School vacation in place of vacation leave; 1 month a year in term	Full pay	Head of department	Section 24
Junior officers' leave	24 days sick leave a year; casual leave after one year	Full pay	Head of department	Section 26
Daily-paid officers' leave	14 days sick leave a year after two years' service	Full pay	Head of department	Section 27

Source: Establishments Code Chapter XII and the Ministry's Leave Handbook. Verify your own case with the calculator above and with your establishments officer.

Frequently asked questions

Sources & references

Day counts were read out of the Leave Handbook and the English text of the circulars above on 2026-09-22, not from the figures that circulate informally. The English PDF of the Establishments Code itself downloads in full but its cross-reference table is damaged and would not extract on that date, which is why the Handbook and the circulars are the sources of record here. This page is reviewed whenever the Ministry issues a circular touching Chapter XII.

This tool covers the national public service. Provincial public services issue their own circulars, and the armed forces and judicial officers are governed by their own service regulations. It is a guide to published rules and computes no salary — the approving authority's decision under the Establishments Code is final, and leave is a privilege rather than a right.

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