Legal and Ethical Concerns Regarding Leave Policies
Legally and ethically, the practice being followed by your company is wrong.
As far as leave is concerned, you will be guided by relevant legislation like the Shops and Establishment Act or Factories Act, etc. If yours is a factory, then you are not eligible for casual or sick leave. Earned leave will be credited to your account every January. If one has attended 2/3 of the working days in the calendar year or 240 days in the whole of the calendar year, then he is entitled to earned leave whether he is confirmed or not. Even a temporary workman is entitled to leave with wages. The Delhi Shops Act provides for a 4-month waiting period for earned leave and one month's time for casual leave.
Section 22: Leave
(1) Every person employed in an establishment shall be entitled:
(a) after every twelve months' continuous employment, to privilege leave for a total period of not less than fifteen days;
(b) in every year, to sickness or casual leave for a total period of not less than twelve days;
Provided that:
(i) an employee who has completed a period of four months in continuous employment shall be entitled to not less than five days of privilege leave for every such completed period; and
(ii) an employee who has completed a period of one month in continuous employment shall be entitled to not less than one day's casual leave for every month.
Leave has nothing to do with your status, and unfortunately, many organizations seem to be misguided on this aspect.
Delay in confirmation is not legally correct. Since you are not affected by this issue at this stage, I am not discussing the issue of probation and confirmation here. There have been Supreme Court decisions on this issue.
Regards,
T. Sivasankaran