Can Employees Use Remaining Privilege Leaves Without Them Turning Into Casual Leaves?

My query is regarding Privilege Leaves. If an employee has only 7 PL and utilizes 5 at a time, it leaves only 2 in her kitty. So how can she later utilize it? If she takes the remaining 2 days together, it would be considered as Casual Leaves because, as per our knowledge, one or two days' leave taken consecutively is considered as Casual Leaves. Can she take the remaining 2 days as privilege leave itself? I would really appreciate it if you could help me with this, as this issue may lead to a conflict between the management and the employees.

Thank you

It can be CL or PL. Even one day of PL is also possible. No hard and fast rules.

Pon

Understanding Leave Policies Across Companies

There is no straightforward rule on this that is common across companies. The Factories Act just states 1 day's leave for every 20 days worked, without specifying PL, SL, CL, etc. The Bombay Shop and Establishment Act also mentions 21 or 30 days of leave, again without a breakdown. Some state S&E acts provide a breakdown but do not specify rules on how to use them.

If it is a small company, the HR department makes its own rules, which are then followed by everyone. In a large company, check the standing orders. If standing orders are not available, then follow the model standing orders. The details of leave rules are provided in the standing orders.

The normal rule is that PL must be taken in at least 3-day pairs. Most companies instead follow a rule that you cannot take it more than twice a year. Some allow CL before PL, some allow it after. Therefore, your question cannot be answered with this information alone.

You have not mentioned the status of your firm. Are you a factory, a shop, or something else? Normally, Privilege Leave (PL) (in some establishments, it's Earned Leave (EL)) can be utilized for one day or more (not in fractions like half a day). If she has only 2 days in her credit, what prevents her from availing one day or both days together? There is no violation. Generally, there is no link between Casual Leave (CL) and PL/EL; they are not interchangeable, except in special circumstances. It is not a common rule that "unutilized CL can be converted into PL/EL."

For example, if an employee was not granted any CL at all or there are more days in the credit of CL at the end of the year due to the inability to avail/utilize them because of official work pressure (otherwise, unutilized CL automatically elapses, and hence the employee totally foregoes it for no fault of their own). In such cases, special orders are passed to carry forward unutilized CL and merge it with PL/EL either 1:1 or 2:1, etc. This type of arrangement should be part of the firm's leave policy.

If discretion is given to appropriate officers in this regard, administration becomes easier to regulate granting leave vis-a-vis workload. In firms that follow the government's pattern of leave eligibility, CL is not merged with either PL/EL or Sick Leave. However, if the leave policy delegates powers to designated officers, this can also be relaxed to manage critical situations like hospitalization, etc.

Above all, you have to consult your own leave policy first before consulting the policies of others.

There is no hard and fast rule that you have to take more than 2 days as PL. As the other two have explained here, it depends on Standing Orders and also from company to company. If it comes to your case, you can request management to consider it as PL as you have a balance of only 2 days when it is really necessary, explaining and giving reasons. Otherwise, it's better you maintain the balance and carry it forward without utilizing it, so that you can encash PL at the end or whenever necessary according to your company policies. I suggest you can make use of other leaves instead of bothering PL days.

Regards, Bharghavi

Hi everybody, thank you all for your kind advice on my query. I would like to add that we are registered under the Shop and Establishment Act.

To answer your query, it is an area where you can have a very good employee relationship. Based on the needs of the individual employee (case-by-case basis), try to sanction the available leaves, i.e., do not demarcate it as CL, SL, EL. Based on the prevailing situation of productivity, try to balance between the leaves available. That will boost the morale of the employees. It may seem like breaking the available rules and regulations; however, it may work out in practical terms.

If my view is not correct, I request my seniors to correct me.

All the best!!!