Unequal Sunday Compensatory Pay: Can HO Employees Seek Legal Action for Fair Treatment?

Hi Folks,

I work for a construction company. As the nature of the work requires, we work 365 days a year.

The problem is we have three classes of employment:

1. Employees on permanent rolls.
2. Employees on particular projects.
3. Employees appointed at a particular project by the local authority.

All classes work on Sundays, and whenever they take leaves, it is adjusted against their Sunday compensatory off first. If there is no pending Sunday compensatory off, then their leave is adjusted against their mandatory leaves.

We pay during the final clearance, including the unutilized Sunday compensatory off, to site employees (locally employed). However, we do not pay those appointed by the head office (HO) as they do not take as much leave. When they resign, we do not pay their unutilized Sunday balance leaves.

In my opinion, this is a wrong practice. We should either pay everyone or no one.

How should we address this issue? Not paying the Sunday compensatory payment to HO-appointed employees is causing problems. Can they go to court for settlement? I believe they can, especially after the management has been reminded of the potential consequences and remains silent.

Your thoughts, please.

With Regards,

R. Sudhakar

Hi,

First, you need to revamp your compensatory off policy. Secondly, as per my knowledge, employees cannot go to court because the leave policy is decided by the company and it differs from company to company.

Regarding the compensatory off, keep it uniform for all employees.

If an employee is called to the office for an emergency or due to work pressure by his or her supervisor, then only he will be entitled to a C/O. It has to be duly signed by the reporting manager.

If the employee is coming on a Sunday to complete pending work/assignment, then that employee will not be entitled to compensatory off.

Keep a time limit that the employee has to avail his compensatory off within that particular month. If not availed, it lapses.

Do not encash the compensatory off at the time of settlement. Any unavailed C/O will lapse.

OR

Instead of the C/O for Sunday working, the employee can claim a consolidated amount (e.g., Rs. 60 to 100). You can discuss with your senior for the amount.

This will avoid all differences (keeping track of the C/O working, adjustment in their leave, etc.).

I hope this will help you.

Thanks,

Uttama