Curious About Personal Leave in Manufacturing: How Many Hours Do You Allow?

We are a paper-making industry. Currently, we allow a 60-minute grace period for late arrivals each month, following which we deduct salary for the tardy hours of employees. We are considering implementing a "One-hour Personal Permission" policy, allowing employees to take this leave three times within a two-month period. I am curious to know, in similar manufacturing industries, how many hours of personal permission are typically granted?

In our company, we follow a policy of allowing 2 hours of permission, twice in a calendar month, for staff employees, subject to the approval of the plant head in advance.

Few companies will be doing this. Such discretionary absence is better left to the discretion of the plant head and not cast in stone. Soon, you will find that employees consider these 3 hours of absence as a right and use it even where there is no need, simply because it will lapse.

Workers and employees in India know they have CL and EL, and that any other leave is subject to deduction from their salary.

Casual Leave and Late Coming Policies

Usually, all organizations extend the benefit of casual leave to meet emergencies or urgent work that is not casual in nature. However, sometimes situations make an employee helpless, forcing them to deviate from the procedure and seek permission for late coming instead of applying for casual leave.

Many managements have taken cognizance of this issue. Permitting late coming can encourage absenteeism and create distrust between supervisors and floor workers. To address this, rules have been framed to condone late coming one or two times. If it is repeated a third time, the employee will be served with a warning letter, indicating that repetition of such a habit in the future will attract a departmental inquiry, in addition to treating the absence as leave without pay. It all depends on management. Such late coming definitely has a cascading effect on the manufacturing process.

In my view, allowing 2 hours of relaxation time, three times a month, can be beneficial for the office. This results in a total loss of 6 working hours per month. However, employees do not have to lose any casual leave or any other type of leave. Hence, you achieve productivity output accordingly.

Suppose an employee takes 1 casual leave; you lose 8 hours of productivity. But if you allow 2 hours of relaxation, you gain 6 hours of productivity. The frequency (3 times, 2 times, etc.) can be a matter of discussion.

Since late coming on the 4th day in a month will lead to a loss in productivity, it should be treated as leave only.

Regards,
Manas