Is Our Strict Leave Policy in Chennai Fair and Legal? Seeking Insights and Advice

I work for a healthcare BPO in Chennai. Our leave policy is stringent as we only have 12 days of CL in addition to 10 days of declared national holidays. Any CL taken before or after a weekend or any declared holiday is considered as LOP for all the days, including the weekend or declared holiday. There are no sick leave, PL, EL, etc.

Policy Compliance Inquiry

Can we continue with such a policy? Is it correct to have such a policy? What should be the leaves as per acts?

Kindly enlighten on this.

Regards,
R. Kavitha

Compliance with Tamil Nadu Shop and Establishment Act

You need to follow the Tamil Nadu Shop and Establishment Act. The act requires you to provide 12 days of Casual Leave (CL), 12 days of Sick Leave, and 12 days of Privilege Leave (PL) after the completion of one year of work. There is also a provision for carrying forward the leave.

You are required under the rules to give time off for the three national holidays (26th January, 15th August, 2nd October) and five additional days in consultation with workers. This is the minimum requirement, so you are already in violation of the law.

Furthermore, if anyone takes leave (or is absent) before or after a holiday, it cannot be counted as paid leave. However, if the employee takes leave both before and after the holiday, the holiday will be counted as leave.

Instead of 03 National Paid Holidays, as mentioned in your post on 29th Dec '14, it should be 04 National Paid Holidays. The 4th one is 1st May (i.e., Labour Day). Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Thanks,
Anil Kumar Sharma

As per the Tamil Nadu Industrial Establishment National and Festival Holidays Act 1958 and Rules 1959, only three national holidays are provided for. May 1, or Labour Day, is not listed. Actually, it's not considered a national holiday. I think the same rule applies to establishments.

As per the Tamil Nadu National and Festival Holidays Act, May 1st is not a national or even compulsory holiday.

Dear Kavita,
Sick leave is not mandatory for those who are under ESI benefits. I assume your Gross (ESI Gross is below Rs 15,000/-). You can apply for payment through ESI for LOP due to sickness. Furthermore, PL is not mandatory until you complete one year.

Public holidays vary from state to state.

Thank you.
Regards

Leave as a Right or Privilege?

Leave of any kind is not a right of an employee. When it relates to schools regulated by education rules, you cannot take it as a right. However, in certain cases, the courts have ruled that leave is a right of a worker. Please refer to the same definition of a worker as given in the Industrial Disputes Act for this as well.

Sick Leave for ESI-Covered Employees

I differ from Sojan regarding sick leave for ESI-covered employees. Nowhere in the Shops Act or other Acts is it mentioned that sick leave is applicable only to employees not covered by ESI. Therefore, if your state's Shops Act provides for sick leave, it should be given to all, including those under ESI. Employees under ESI will receive sickness benefits subject to certain conditions, such as being available only during the benefit period, having paid at least 78 days of contribution during the contribution period, not receiving benefits for the first two days (unless they fall sick within 15 days of the first spell of sickness), and the benefit amount being around 70% (recently presumed to be 90%) of the average wages, etc.

Regards,
Madhu.T.K