I am not aware of provisions of Shops t in Gujrat. Combining all leave is possible as long as you give better benefits. I will discuss with reerence to Tamilnadu Shops Act This will throw some light and you can apply for your State
1. Tamilnadu Act provides for 12 days of earned Leave 12 days of Casual leave arned leave is and 12 days of Medical leave with pay
2. Earned leave is credited after one year.But, Medical and Casual leave are credited in the same year.
3. Earned leave is allowed to be accumulated upto 24 days. CL and ML lapse at the end of the year.
4. In Tamilnadu it is mandatory to give 36 days of leave in a year. If covered under ESI, we can reduce it to 24 days even though law does not specify so.
5. If it is factory, maximum leave is 15 days in a year
6. One need to examine the Shops Act in their State and draft policy.
7 If Gujarat provides for 12 plus 12 as in Tamilnadu excluding medical, then minimum leave you need to provide will be 24 days in a year
8. It is mandatory to provide for earned Leave which can be accumulated say atleast for two years.
I do come across with many BPOs resorting to one day or 1.5 day leave per month and this also lapses every month.They always justify saying that they need to deliver and can not accept absenteeism All State Govts and Central Govt are not implementing this vigorously. In our days, in Manufacturing, we used to engage temporary workers and will not give them leave. It used to be the practice in 50s and 60s. Then the Unions stated demanding and Govt officials were very strict. Even today, in Manufacturing industries, this is followed in general.
I would like summarise as under:
1. Legally it is not correct to give leave lesser than as provided in law
2. Legally it is not correct not to allow accumulation at least for two years.
3.But practically many organisations are practicing this now especially in BPO/IT sector (Not big players)
4.Since there is no unionisation and since the Govt is not insisting on this right now, you can do this and risk involved is low
As a lawyer, I would advise no.
As a practical HR consultant I would suggest you to consider 2 days per month. Allow accumulation of 12 days for the next year
Indirectly, allowing accumulation acts as one of the factors in reducing attrition rate
T Sivasankaran
High rate of at