Late Arrivals and Leave Deductions: How Should We Address Employee Concerns?

Latecoming Policy and Employee Concerns

Some employees report to the office late and compensate by working later in the evening. These employees work 48 hours a week. However, the company deducts half a day's leave from these employees after three instances of late coming. The employees are claiming that if the company continues this practice, they will raise complaints with the respective authorities. Please help me overcome this issue. If they do raise a complaint, will it be valid?

Regards

You have to check your company policy. If your company emphasizes flexible working hours, then their complaint is valid. If you follow specific working hours, then it won't create any problem despite the same having been communicated to them. It could be in the induction or appointment letter stating the terms and conditions, etc.

But from now on, you can convey a written communication or a notice on the notice board to ensure that all employees are aware of the rules and regulations of the company.

Late Coming Policy and Salary Deductions

It is a rule that for every three instances of late coming, there is a half-day salary cut. However, the timings are strictly followed by your company, i.e., our company timing is from 9:00 AM to 6:30 PM every day. No one can work any extra time without informing the HR department.

Hi Prasad, if the policy states so, you can deduct without any questions being raised against it.

Policy on Late Attendance

Please understand there is no question of compensating for late attendance. If the policy is fixing duty hours, we need to follow the same as a matter of discipline. There shall not be any questions raised on deduction for late coming.

Industry Considerations

- What kind of industry is it? If it's IT, then there should be flexible hours.
- However, daily attendance should be followed as per the service rules/Attendance Policy of the organization. If any clause is mentioned in the policy for flexible hours/compensation and if an employee is working for a minimum number of hours in a day, then no question of deduction of leave should arise.
- If there is no such policy mentioned in the service rules, the employee should get the benefit and should be allowed flexible hours with no deduction of any leaves.

May I also mention that nowadays all companies are working extended hours, and staff members are required to work beyond the specified time if any work is left undone.

Suggestion

Kindly arrange a session with the employees immediately to bring awareness/refresh HR policies, wherein you can brief all HR and other policies with the employees. This will clear the doubts and differences among employees with HR.

Regards,
Satyanarayana

You have to check your company policy. If your company emphasizes flexible working hours, then their complaint is valid. If you follow specific working hours, then it won't create any problem despite the same being communicated to them. It could be in the induction or appointment letter stating the terms and conditions, etc. From now on, you can convey written communication or a notice on the notice board to ensure that all employees are aware of the rules and regulations of the company.

Issue of Working Late

We have been staying late in the evening beyond the regular office hours of 10-7 pm. We used to stay back until 8 pm every day and sometimes until 10 pm depending upon the workload. It has become a regular practice here. Requesting you to advise on how to tackle it, as when we go late, we tend to report for duty late until 10:30 am. There is a rule in the company that allows employees three times for late coming, and after that, they deduct payment on a pro-rata basis. I just don't understand this rule, as they have made it a regular routine for us to work late every day. If on any day we go at the regular timing at 7 pm, then our bosses scold us.

Is it justified? Is there any such rule? Please advise on how to tackle this situation as it becomes very difficult for us to carry out our duties.

Regards,
Rajendra