Leave During Probation [Thread 11276]

Hi
I have a friend who is working in a Proprietoryship firm. He is on probation for a period of 6 months and he requires leave for a day for some personal reasons. He has been told that he cant avail leave during probation and that his salary would be cut.
Is there any law governing such policies? Being a proprietory firm, do they come under labour law? Is such salary cut acceptable?
I got to know thro someone that any person who works for 20 days has to be granted a days leave. Is this true?
Rgds
Anuradha

Hi,

Leave to an employee is a subject covered under either the Shops & Commercial Establishments Act of your state or the Factories Act. What you have been told is largely Okay for Factories Act and not for the other act.

There are various types of Leaves that an employee may be eilgible to e.g. Sick Leave, Casual Leave, Earned Leave, Paid Holidays etc. Of these only the earned leave is provided for in the two acts named above. The basic provisions are:

Under the Shops..Act, an employee earns Earned Leave at the rate of FIVE days for every 60 days worked with an upper limit of 21 days in a year. Under the Factories Act an employee earns Earned Leave at the rate of ONE day for every 20 days worked. The manner of computing the "days worked" is explained in the acts. But we need not go into these details right now.

Of all the leaves, while the employee's Leave account is credited at the beginning of the year for Sick Leave and the Casual Leave (because they are a part of terms and conditions of employment) aside of legal benefits, the Eraned Leave is credited at the beginning of the year for the Leave earned during the past year. This applies to both the acts.

Therefore granting Earned Leave to an employee while on probation is simply out of the question UNLESS the employer has rules otherwise! Other types of leaves also are credited only after successful completion of the probation period i.e. on being confirmed because it is not certain that a probationer will necessarily get confirmed and the employers do not wish to be extra-ordinarily generous too early in the association.

However as Good Management Practice, many employers grant leave during probation, if satisfied with the reason and debit the leave account when the employee earns it.

I trust you have got all your answers. If you need more clarification, put a meaasge on the board!

Regards

samvedan

July 31, 2006

Dear Anuradha,
The applicability of any Act generally depends on the Status of the Employee. If your friend is in the Management Cadre, then he/she will be guided by his/her terms and conditions of employment and is excluded for coverage in most cases.
So, the Employer has every right to disallow leave during probation period. It is upto the Organisation to adjust leave.
I must put in something here, it is not wrong for the employer to deduct Salary, because usually a probationer has to put in 6 months(or probationary period) of working i.e 26*6(Period of Probation)=156 days less declared holidays.
In Organisations where their is Seniority cum Merit or Seniority based promotion is prevalent the date of confirmation becomes very important for matter of seniority and hence these Organisations usually donot give any leave during period of probation. This not only apply to Employment probation but also during Promotion Probation(when a person is promoted).
Kind Regards,
SC