Understanding Leave Entitlement: Do New Employees Get No Leave in Their First Year?

Dear Sir, as per the Factories Act of 1948, Section 79, is the employer not required to give any leaves to employees for the first calendar year (Employee Joined year)?

For example:

(i) If an employee joins on 01/01/2017 and has worked 240 days or more in 2017, may the employer sanction leave to him in 2018, and the employer is not required to give any leave in 2017.

(ii) If an employee joins on 01/07/2017 and obviously he can't work 240 days or more in 2017, in which calendar year may the employer sanction leave to him?

Please clarify.

Thanks with Regards,

T. Thirumurugan

Leave Eligibility Under the Factories Act

If you follow the Factories Act, there is no leave during the first calendar year of service. This means an employee who joins on the 1st of January, 2017, will not be eligible for any leave for the entire 12 months. If he works for 240 paid days (paid days mean days for which wages have been paid and obviously will include weekly off days in the case of monthly paid employees) in 2017, his leave will be credited on 1st January, 2018. The same will be one leave for every 20 days physically present for work.

Now, an employee who joins in between the year, say, on 1st July, 2017, will also get annual leave on 1st January, 2018, provided he has worked for 120 paid days. He need not complete 240 days, but the eligibility will be decided proportionately.

Practical Considerations and Union Agreements

The above is purely theoretical, but in practice, there would be some arrangement or settlement with the Unions for a greater number of leaves and/or provision of casual leaves right from the first year of joining. If we follow the Factories Act, an employee cannot avail his annual leave/earned leave/PL in case leave is required for a single day or two days because under the Act, leave can be availed only three times a year. Therefore, if you use it for a single day, you will lose one chance of taking the leave. In such scenarios, there are other kinds of leave, like CL, which can be taken for a single day or even for half a day.

Regards, Madhu.T.K