Difference Between Short Leave And Half Day Leave

Dear seniors,

I am working in the Punjab government office as a third-party contractor employee. I need to know the difference between short leave and half-day leave. How many hours constitute a short leave, and how many hours constitute a half-day leave according to HR and the law? Your early reply will be helpful to me.

Thanks in advance,
Sandeep

Hi,

If any employee applies for half-day leave, the working hours will be as follows:

- On leave half day afternoon - working hours from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm
- On leave half day morning - working hours from 2:00 pm to 7:00 pm

A 2-hour leave is actually called Short Leave, which can be taken as either arriving two hours late after the office timings or leaving two hours early before the office timings.

Regards

Dear sir,

Thanks for your reply. Do we have any legal proof or labor law that gives a definition of short leave? The matter is very complicated.

Actually, our super boss directed every employee to take short leave permission from middle management and all other leave permissions from him. Now, one employee from our department applied for half a day and one day leave to the super boss. In response to his leave request, the super boss handed him a warning notice for disobeying his orders.

Kindly, please help us.

Thanks,
Sandeep

Dear Sandeep,

As far as my knowledge goes, there are no provisions contained in the labor laws concerning short leave. It entirely depends upon the discretion of the management or company policy if framed in this regard.

However, as per the provisions contained in the Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Central Rules, 1946, all workmen shall have to do the work in the establishment at the time fixed and notified. If someone becomes late, there shall be a deduction from his wages as per the Payment of Wages Act, 1936. Most of the states have framed their rules keeping in view the IE (SO) Central Rules barring a few. For instance, the Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Punjab Rules, 1949, provides that any workman who is found absent from his proper place of work during hours without permission from the appropriate authority shall be liable to be treated as absent for the period of this absence. If, however, a workman is found absent from the premises of the establishment during hours of his duty without proper permission, he shall be treated as absent for the whole day in case the absence commences before the recess period and for the half day in case it commences after the recess period. Such a workman shall be liable for deductions in his wages in accordance with the provisions under the PW Act, 1936, and rules made thereunder.

BS Kalsi

Dear Sirs,

The person who initiated this thread has not disclosed whether the Punjab Govt. Office to which he has referred is an "industrial establishment" or "commercial establishment". If it is an industrial establishment, only then the provisions of The Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Act, 1946, and rules as framed by the State Govt. of Punjab will be applicable. The term "commercial establishment" has been defined under relevant shops & commercial establishment Acts (viz. Delhi Shop & Commercial Establishment Act, 1954).

Every Office of the State Govt or Central Govt or UTs has adopted or enforced service conditions and leave rules as per their own decisions and choice in respect of regular/permanent employees. However, in respect of leave rules/conditions as applicable to the employees of contractors engaged by the State Govt., in my opinion, only those conditions will apply which are specifically mentioned in terms and conditions of such contracts or, in default, which are mentioned in the Contract Labour (R&A) Act, 1970, and rules framed by the State Govt. of Punjab under the said Act. Therefore, the person who initiated this thread may kindly ask his contractor about the status of the leaves or conditions of the sanction of such leaves as are made applicable to such contractor employees. In addition, Rule 25(2)(b) of the Contract Labour (R&A) Central Rules, 1971 lays down that wage rates, holidays, hours of work, and conditions of service of the workmen of the contractor (if not the same as those of employees of the principal employer) shall be such as may be specified by the Deputy Chief Labour Commissioner (Central). A similar provision may perhaps exist in the rules that are made applicable in the State Govt. of Punjab under the above Act.

As a golden rule, leave, whether it is called casual leave, short leave, or earned leave, etc., is not a matter of right and the appropriate authority, in this case, the contractor or the authorized officer of the contractor/State Govt., can refuse the sanction of any such kind of leave.

Dear Harsh Kumar Mehta Ji,

I appreciate your views contributed to the ongoing thread mentioning the provisions contained in the Contract Labour (R&A) Act, 1970, and the State rules made thereunder. I am of the view that we need to examine the following points too:

(i) the application of the Act, which has the coverage to the establishment employing 20 or more.
(ii) whether the establishment is holding a registration certificate from the competent authority?
(iii) whether the contractor has engaged twenty or more workmen as 'contract labour' in the particular establishment?
(iv) whether the contractor is holding a license from the competent authority?

The Rule 25(2)(b) of the Contract Labour (R&A) Central Rules, 1971, as mentioned by you, has only application where the contractor has obtained a license from the competent authority. I hope you agree with me on the above points.

BS Kalsi

Dear Kalsi Sahib,

Thank you for appreciating the remarks I made earlier in this thread.

In this citeHR, I generally pay close attention to your views and have always found them very relevant and closely aligned with the possible legal position. However, the main problem lies in the fact that the individuals, HR officials, or employees who post their threads or raise issues often do not disclose all the relevant facts. For instance, in this particular thread, the initiator should have disclosed all the facts, as you mentioned in your remarks above. Therefore, when offering our opinions in such cases, we must consider and address all possible aspects and provide potential remedies. In line with this, I also advised the person who initiated this thread to inquire about the position from his contractor regarding the provision of leaves to him as per the agreement.

Thank you.

Dear Harsh Kumar Mehta Ji,

I fully agree with you that the thread raiser should furnish the complete information relating to his query. Many senior members have been advising such persons, including me, but have yielded no results. Sometimes we have to ask for certain information or clarification subsequently. In the absence of such information, we try to give a general prescription, which is hardly helpful or not helpful; rather, it confuses the query raiser.

BS Kalsi

Dear Seniors,

Firstly, I am very thankful to all of you for your valuable remarks and suggestions. We are hired by a private company that has a contract with the Punjab government department for manpower. So, we are working in a government office but getting a salary from a private contractor. The situation here is very complex as no leave rules are provided to us. We are not even able to take a one-day leave with pay. The explanation from the department is that in our contract, it is stated that Saturday is a working day, but due to it being a government office, we get Saturday off. Therefore, we are not authorized to take any leave.

Back to the topic, as mentioned above, no leave rule is provided to us. One of our staff members took a two-hour leave, but somehow she got late by 30 minutes. She informed this to the supervisor over a call. However, the officer considered this as a half-day leave, stating that there is no rule that a short leave of over 2 hours will be considered as a half-day leave. Could you kindly clarify the timing for a half-day and a short-day leave?

Thanks,
Sandeep