Leave Policy - Leave Credit Every Month?

Hi Team,

I am working in a Software organization. I am not part of HR. I am part of the Service Excellence team.

When I am conducting a Security audit on HR related to statutory and regulatory requirements, I found that it's not exactly meeting the Tamil Nadu Shop and Establishment Act. I have already gone through a few previous discussions and could not find the correct answer. However, I understand that all Software organizations fall under the Shop and Establishment Act as per a court ruling.

From my understanding, we should have 12 days of Annual leave, 12 days of sick leave, and 12 days of CL. For permanent employees, the leaves should be credited on the 1st of January every year or after completing one year. Until that time, based on company policy, 1 day per month will be included.

However, we have 12 days of AL and 8 days of CL or ML. There is no separate leave for CL and ML. Additionally, even for permanent employees, the leaves are credited monthly only. The reason is that if all leaves are credited in January, some employees were taking all the leaves and absconding.

As a Software organization, we have a work schedule from 9 AM to 6 PM with a 1-hour lunch break. We observe holidays on Saturday and Sunday.

Our HR department says we are not following the 48-hour workweek as stated in the Shop and Establishment Act. My argument is that as per the act, the maximum is 48 hours only.

Please guide me on whether we are following the Shop and Establishment Act leave policy correctly. Otherwise, it may lead to non-compliance with regulatory requirements.

Your observation is correct. Every employee who has completed 12 months of service is required to be given 12 days of earned leave in addition to 12 days of CL and 12 days of sick leave. A company cannot have fewer leaves and cannot say that "we do not follow Shops...Act." If the company is registered under this Act, it is mandatory that the rules prescribed under the Act should be followed without fail.

With regard to working hours, since they are working for 8 hours per day, there is no violation of the Act. The spread over, including the 1-hour lunch interval, can be up to 10 hours and 30 minutes, but in this case, it is less than that, and the actual working time is not more than 8 hours per day. You can work for five days or six days; that is the headache of the company, but it does not mean that in five days you should work 48 hours. Working for more than 9 hours in a day is not permitted, and if you have Saturday and Sunday off days, then the maximum you can work is 45 hours, not more than that. In the present case, nobody works for more than 8 hours as well. Therefore, this will not become non-compliance.

Madhu.T.K

Hi everyone, my seniors. I have recently joined CiteHR, so please help me. I am working in the automobile industry, so if I face any problem, I will inform you and support me. I hope you all do.