Employee Leave Request Letter

An Employee Leave Request Letter is a formal letter written by an employee to an employer requesting for leave. The employer is the person who has retained the services of the employee. The employer may either be an individual or an organization (which includes companies, partnership and sole proprietorship businesses and any other registered organization). The employee is the person who has been hired by the employer.

There are various types of leave which an employee may request for, the most common ones are:

• Annual leave. This is a time off which is granted by an employer to an employee as holiday once every year. The employee enjoys full pay while on the leave. According to the Nigerian Labour Act, every person who has worked in an organization for a period of 12 months, is entitled to at least six days off with full pay. Some organizations actually grant one month, two weeks, etc. annual leave to their employees.
  
  
• Sick leave. This is a leave of absence which is granted to an employee as a result of the employee's ill health. According to the Labour Act, an employee shall in one calendar year, be entitled to up to 12 (working) days sick leave with full pay.
  
  
• Study leave. This is a period of leave of absence which enables an employee undertake academic research or any academic activities in any institution of learning. This includes completing a masters programme, completing a professional programme (for example, Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN), etc.), attending an academic conference, etc.
  
  
• Compassionate leave. This is a period of absence from work granted to an employee as a result of a personal circumstance, such as the death of a close relative, where the employee's close relative is suffering from a severe illness, etc.
  
  
• Maternity/Paternity leave. This is a period of absence from work granted to an expectant female or a male worker during the time of delivery. Please note that this template can not be used for this purpose, however, the Maternity/Paternity Leave Request Letter is also available for download on this website.

Note that the law only recognizes annual and study leaves, however, some organizations make provision for the other types of leave in their staff manual/policy books, Employment Agreement or Offer Letter.

In this document, the form filler will provide information about the employee, information about the employer, the leave period, the employee's date of resumption and the employee's reasons for making the application.

How to use this document

This document can be used by an employee who needs some time off work. It is imperative to make a formal application via letter or email for record purposes.

After filling the form, the employee must sign the document and send it to the employer. If the employer is an organization, the employee must address the letter to the person who is authorized to receive letters of his nature in the organization. In many organizations, the human resources person receives and gives responses to applications of this nature.

The employee may keep a copy of the letter for record purposes.

Applicable law

The Nigerian Labour Law is applicable to this document. The rules of contract are also applicable to this document.

How to modify the template

You fill out a form. The document is created before your eyes as you respond to the questions.

At the end, you receive it in Word and PDF formats. You can modify it and reuse it.