Can We Change Our Company's Leave Policy? Seeking Advice on Conditions and Procedures

Changing the Company's Leave Policy

Please help me decide if we can change the company's leave policy once it is established. If there are changes we are willing to make, under what conditions can we do so, and what should be the corresponding procedure?

Please try to assist with this as soon as possible. Thank you.

Regards,

As per the company norms, we can change any policy at any time. Regarding the corresponding process, you can use versioning for all policies, such as ABC Policy Version 1.0.0. If there is a minor change, you can update it to 1.1.0; for a major change, you can use 2.0.0. Subsequently, you can communicate the same with all teams.

Thank you.

Certainly, you can make the changes if you require. To make the changes, you first have to understand or recognize the need for changes. You have to discuss with seniors and the authorized people so that you can perform this task.

For example, if you are an executive and feel like something needs to be changed or developed, you can directly note these observations and discuss them with your seniors. Explain why these changes are necessary.

If you have the authority to make the changes yourself, you also need to discuss the same with your teammates. This will provide you with more context and specific reasons to implement the required changes.

For further leave calculation, it would be helpful if you read the discussions for a better understanding on the same at https://www.citehr.com/229129-nation...icability.html, https://www.citehr.com/378355-leave-...l-holiday.html.

Best of luck.

Few seniors have given their valuable inputs, and I hope that will help you understand the matters better. Going by the same approach, I would like to add a few more points on the questions you mentioned in your last post. As you have mentioned that you would like to understand concepts in line with the Shops and Establishment Act, I will try to answer accordingly, assuming your location to be Delhi (correct me if I am wrong).

However, I personally feel that private organizations work within the framework suggested by the Acts and Laws, but not everything can always be strictly followed as per the act/law. That's where organizations use their own discretion to implement and run day-to-day affairs while not largely deviating from the given framework.

Question 1

I guess it is one of the most spoken-about topics in this forum or even others, and maybe between employees and HR, a lot of views have been put on this. To the best of my knowledge and as per the inputs from my HR network, I have seen it as a company-specific decision. Some companies include any holiday/birthday-off/weekly-off as leave if they fall in continuous leaves taken by the employee, whereas some only take into consideration all days as leaves excluding the above-mentioned days. Some companies take all the above-mentioned days as leaves only if they exceed the pre-decided continuous leaves that one takes as per the policy.

The Delhi Shop and Establishment Act mentions that a holiday should be paid but has not set a very clear guideline for how it should be included in the continuous leaves. You can decide in consultation with your management which option you would like to formulate and implement in this regard.

Question 2

Prefix & Suffix stands for a leave before and after another leave/holiday/weekly-off/birthday-off. For example, as you mentioned in Question no. 1, the employee has taken leave on 01-Oct-11, 02-Oct-11, and 03-Oct-11. Now, as per the existing policy of the company, 02-Oct-11 is a national holiday. So if the person has taken leave on 01-Oct-11 as a prefix leave and again took another leave on 03-Oct-11 as a suffix leave, then the company can take it as 3 days leave as it has a prefix of 01-Oct-11 and a suffix leave of 03-Oct-11, having 02-Oct-11 in between. In contrast, it can be considered as only 2 days leave, i.e., only for 01-Oct and 03-Oct.

As you have mentioned that your 3rd query has been answered, I will not be writing more on it.

Hope this will help.

Thanks,

Prashant

It's truly very nice being enlightened by your valuable inputs, and in all respects, my questions and doubts have been cleared. Yes, I am from Delhi, and I am to formulate or make some corrections in the existing leave policy of the company so that both employees and employers could benefit.

Thanking you once again for sharing your knowledge and experience with me. I wish you all the best and good fortune for this coming Diwali. God bless you all.

Regards,

Very useful inputs have been given by the members. One thing I would like to state is that if the leave policy you intend to change affects the employees covered by labor enactments, you need to ensure that the relevant laws are substantially complied with.

Regards,
B. Saikumar
HR & Labour Law Advisor
Mumbai

Change in Leave Policy

Change in leave policy can be done subject to the approval of the Competent Authority, i.e., the Board of Directors, and subject to compliance with the applicable laws.

Yes, the company is always at liberty to change the leave policy. First, it needs to be decided which policy is to be adopted. Once it is decided, then a précis will be prepared and transmitted to the CS to add to the agenda of the upcoming meeting of the BoD. Upon approval by the BoD, a fresh policy can be made applicable.

Changes in Service Conditions

No change in service conditions can be made without the consent of the employees as per the requirements of The Industrial Disputes Act, 1947. Furthermore, it will require the approval of the Competent Authority, such as the Board of Directors, and compliance with the applicable laws.