Attendance, Late Mark, Grace Period, Leave Deduction - Pl.Clarify

Hi,
Please clarify, this is in regarding to timely attendance of employees in our office, there is an circular issued by our administration department that one casual leave will be deducted for every two late marks. No grace period given. Office timings mentioned 9.30AM to 06.00PM.
On what basis we can fix the grace period and how much?
No. of late marks for deducting the casual leave etc.,
Is this procedure is legally valid? Please advise.

Each company has it's own HR Manual and it is on the discretion of Management to design and implement policies as per the nature of business, skills of employees, influence of environment and the product/service that is being offered. Let's take an example of a Heath Care Servive Provider. If employees arrive late, this may suffer the health of patients or anything may happen to the life if even a small element of carelessness is shown in this particular regard. So, policies have to be aligned with the organizational objectives to run the business keeping in view the vision of the company.

Hi Sreedhar,
I agree with samia qamar.
I can say few things on this.Depending upon the nature of ur company u may put a max of 30 min grace period, if this exceeds it leads to the loss of productivity of the company.
Can't say it's legal or not but to make the work properly, healty u have to intorduce this so that the employee can leave the office primises if there is no work........!!!!:):)

Dear Sreedhar,
As my concern, Late coming may be punished, but
in a systamatic manner.
For example, if an employee late for
an half an hour, then cut 1 hr salary
1 hr means, cut 2 hrs salary,
1.5 hrs means, cut 3hrs salary
2 hrs means, cut half day leave or 4 hr salary
But for Habitual late coming, necessary strong disciplinary action may be taken
thanks & regards
N. Srinivasan

Hi,
You can also look at things a little differently maybe, try to provide your employees a positive motivation to report to office on time - maybe through an award/reward - can be monetory/non-monetory depending on your management outlook andthe urgency/importance of the late coming issue.
You could probably organise a special award ceremony (if you do not alreay have one) to reward these deserving employees who are consistently on time.
Maybe an initiative like this could completely eliminate the need for any real pay-cuts/penalties/excessive time office monitoring; since by nature every human being's behaviour is conditioned basis his/her motivation.
These are just my thoughts on the topic, hope my contrarian approach didn't hurt anybody's sentiments on the topic.
Thanks,
Noel Farias
Pune

The vision of the top management is to be clear in such cases. These circulars should be applied with careful mind. Sometimes management applies double standards.

Dear Shridhar,
The fecility differs according to the requirement or the working system of each Company.Management need not consider grace time atall.But keeping in view various aspects Management can fecilitate its employees. But it is not a must.
Of late the practice followed in places of organised labour is a grace period of 15 to 30 minutes on maximum three occasions in a month.If any employee exceeds this ,on the fourth occasion the employee lose one day casual or some Management cut the salary for one day for every three occasions i.e if the employee is late for six days will lose 2 days leave or salary. It is considered to be a detterent punishment to employees.
regards
madhwa

Hi Sreedhar

I copy here my company policy for the late coming. May it will be some useful to you. RULES ON LATE COMING

Every employee of the company is expected to be present for the duty at his work place five minute before the start time i.e. 9.25 AM on all the working days.

However to accommodate the delay which may be caused due to various reason the following relaxation will be available to each employee With effect from 27.01.2009.

1. Grace period of 10 minutes will be available to each employee 3 times in a month without any deduction.

2. For delay of more than 3 times up to 10 times in a month will be deducted a salary of ½ day.

3. For delay for more than 10 times up to 20 times in a month full day’s salary will be deducted.

4. For delay of more than 20 times in a month, the concerned employee will not be taken on duty without proper explanation, in writing with deduction of salary up to 2 days.

5. Proper explanation will be called from the chronic late comers and suitable action taken.

Rules on Short leave

The following rules will be observed on short leave.

1. Three half an hour either coming late or going early with the permission of the management will be exempted and no deduction will be made.

2. Between three to six such delay or leaving the duty early, half day’s salary will be deducted.

3. Any employee requiring more than six such short leave will be required to apply for minimum half day’s leave in advance.

Dear Friend,
As we are put up in the outskirts of city limit, we follow a procedure:
Due to valid reason, if an employee is late to work or has to leave early before the scheduled time, it has to be communicated to the immediate reporting authority and the same has to be approved in the below mentioned Permission Slip.
This can be entertained for a maximum of 4 hours in a month i.e., 2 hours maximum in a day. Beyond the limit of 2 hours in a day and 4 hours in a month, shall be treated as half a day leave.
The permission hours referred is only for exigency purpose and shall not be regularized. Habitual late coming or quitting work place before the scheduled time shall be subject to disciplinary action.
NOTE :.
The above said 2 hours permission shall not be combined with leave (half a day).

Dear Sreedhar,
Generally, HR Manual of an organisation should have all these provisions. Late coming is generally allowed for 10 minutes from the begining of the working hour and this is allowed for 3 days in a month. Any thing beyond 10 minutes shall be marked as LATE. All the late coming occassions are then marked & presented to the higher authority for action against the habitual late comers. This can be deduction of casual or earned Leave, as the case may be. This late coming occassions are also reflected in the Annual Apprsaisal form, where some marks are alloted to Punctuality. The habitual late comer shall lose the marks only because he was a habitual late comer, thereby affecting his annual increment. This process has helped many organisations towards Punctuality.