Is It Fair to Count Off Days as Leave? Seeking Clarity on New Policy in Bangalore

I'm working in the cosmeceutical ingredients and major chemicals supply industry in Bangalore, Karnataka. We have off on the 2nd and 4th Saturdays, excluding Sundays. If an employee takes 15 days of leave, we consider it as leave itself on off days. However, the management has now implemented a leave policy stating that if employees take continuous leave, they will not be eligible for off days (off days will be considered as Loss of Pay).

Government Rules and Leave Policy

Please let me know the government rules regarding this issue. Is the implementation correct or wrong? As an HR professional, what can I do to support the employees?

I appreciate your clarification on this matter and welcome your valuable suggestions.

Regards,
Krishna Murthy

Understanding Leave Policies: Holidays During Earned Leave

To my knowledge, holidays falling during earned leave, which is taken continuously for 15 days, will form part of the leave. However, as per the Factories Act, holidays falling in between the leave period are excluded.

Regards,
B. Saikumar
Mumbai

Understanding Leave Policies: Holidays and Off Days

Normally, holidays or weekly off days intervening with Casual Leaves (CLs) will not be counted as CL, but the holiday or off day will be allowed. Whereas holidays or off days, as the case may be, coming in between sick leaves, earned leaves, maternity leaves, and leaves without pay will be taken as leaves only. As put by Sai, under the Factories Act, the only applicable leave, i.e., annual leave with wages or commonly referred to as earned leave, is given apart from holidays and off days that intervene the leaves.

The logic behind the above reasoning is that CL is taken for casual and unexpected happenings, and there will generally be a restriction on the number of CLs that can be availed at a stretch, say 3 CLs at a time. Therefore, holidays/off days coming in between two CLs shall be treated as such, and no CL needs to be taken for that.

At the same time, sick leave is availed when a person is sick and not fit to work. If an employee falls sick on Friday and that continues till Monday (both days inclusive), normally, he cannot say that he was FIT on Saturday and Sunday, being weekly off days, and therefore, only two days of sick leave should be deducted.

In the case of Earned Leave, since it is taken for a long period after proper planning and perhaps for moving out of headquarters or the place of his working and probably after carrying out a handing over of functions to another peer employee, the days of off and holidays that intervene the leave days shall also be considered as leave for the employees.

In the case of Maternity Leave, the same principle applies, and no woman can claim that in addition to 84 days of Maternity Leave, she should get 12/24 days of weekly off and such other holidays that came in between the days she was under maternity leave. Similarly, one who has been on Leave Without Pay (LOP) for the entire month cannot claim salary for 4/8 off days.

Regards,
Madhu.T.K