Clarification On Leave Policy - Pdf Download

Dear All,
I have recently joined a company into manufacturing Mumbai I have been asked to frame the leave policies.
Company has 15 paid leaves + 4 national holidays+8 festival holidays. If Employees take any leave they deduct the salary and encash 15 paid leaves at the year end.
As per law employee has to be given minimum 21 paid leaves. My Company is stringent on leaves and says that they will give 21 paid leaves and 4 national holidays no festival holidays.
I feel this is not fair on employees part. Need suggestions from seniors .

Show the employer the State Act i.e. S&E or Factories Act whichever is applicable, and to follow as per the same if not then they have to face the consequences laid down by the Authorities.

Dear Deeba ji,
You said you are in manufacturing. Certainly you must be having more than 10 employees and therefore, to you FA 1948 applies. As per the provisions of FA in regards to Annual Leave, every adult worker is entitled to 1day leave for every 20 days of work performed by him during previous calendar year. That comes to average 15 days in year.
This provision clearly states that the employee shall be allowed with leave with wages.

The information you have given is incomplete.
Are you a factory (are there factories in mumbai)
Or are you under shops and establishment act
Or do both laws apply at different locations.
In case of factory, the rules in your office hold true.
There is no festival holidays act in Maharashtra, so company can decide its own holidays. The 3 national holidays are compulsory.
In case of an office not attached to a factory, there is a need to give 21 days leave as per Bombay shop and establishment act. Festival and national holiday should be in addition. But again, there is no festival holidays act so you have a lea way.
However the practice of deducting salary for leave and then giving encashing is wrong and illegal. It can get them into trouble. You need to set up a monitoring system to know how many leaves are used and deduct salary after all leave is exhausted.

Hi All
Thanks for the reply we have 1 office in Mumbai and 1 factory in Gujrat.
So as per shop and establishment act we have 21 leaves and 4 national holiday.. My query is if the employee is not given any festival leave it will be included in their paid leaves that is wrong as the employee works dedicatedly 6 days a week.
How do i make the management understand this.. They are open to bring in changes but with strong supportings .

How can I give a supporting when none exists.
As a general rule, companies allow 8 days of total holidays in a year. But that is only a practice not law.

I second Mr. Saswataji it is a general practice, there is no law or rule pertaining to Festive Holidays, if an employee works on any festive holidays it has to be compensated with higher pay or compensatory off as per the company policy. We are into hotels and practically it is not viable to give festive holidays to all the employees we keep minimum staff and whoever works on the festive holiday is paid double the salary.

Saswatajee,
Kindly elaborate in case of Factory which of 3 national holiday are compulsory under Factories Act - Maharashtra.
Regards,
Azim

The 3 compulsory national holidays are Republic day, Independence Day and Gandhi Jayanti. But I think 1st may being Maharashtra day will also be a required holiday if you don't want problem from the local politicians

Thanks all,
But the question is still not answered .
The Shop and Estb Act states 4 holidays that are mandatory (26th jan, 1st may,15th aug, 2nd Oct) what about the festive holidays.
If the employee has to take festive holidays from his entitled paid leaves 21 then 8- 10 leaves will be availed what are they left with? Employee will definately take leave for Diwali, Ganesh Chaturthi etc .
Pls suggest how many festive leave should be given by the mgmt.