Whether to give extra benefit to a worker of national or paid holiday?

Dear Sirs/Veterans,

I have a practical question regarding N & F holidays. The question is: If an employee (permanent worker or CL) is absent without permission on the previous and following day of a national or festival holiday that falls in between, will they be eligible to be paid for that national or festival holiday? Please note that days of absence without permission will not be considered as payable days for the employee, regardless of whether they have leave balance or not.

Currently, most industries follow the practice that if the above scenario occurs, the worker will not be paid wages for the national or festival holiday. The rationale behind this is why should the employee receive the benefit for that day if they were absent on both the preceding and succeeding day of the national or festival holiday. I seek clarity on whether this practice is correct and whether there could be any potential negative legal implications in the future.

Thank you.

As per the National and Festival Holidays Act, any workman who is on the rolls of the industries as of the date of national holidays is eligible for wages. For Festival Holidays, the condition precedent is that the worker should have been on the rolls of the industry for 30 days prior to 90 days of the holiday. Your condition is not maintainable before the inspection/authorities under the Act.

Thank you, sir!

It means that even though the worker was absent without permission the day before and after the national holiday, he still needs to be paid wages. Have I understood it correctly, sir?

It means though the worker was absent without permission the previous and the post day of the national holiday, he needs to be paid wages. Have I understood it correctly, Sir?

'Yes,' legally.

Festival & National Holidays Act is a state Act, and there is no mention of any such Act on the Maharashtra government site. The Standing Orders provide for festival & national holidays, so please check it and follow it. If the employee is absent on the preceding and succeeding day, then the employee is not entitled to wages for the intervening holiday, which is widely accepted.

Dear Babu Alexander ji,

I have not read the National and Festival Holidays Act. Do you mean that if an employee remains absent without pay for the entire month and there is a National or Festival Holiday within that month, they should be paid for that specific holiday? This implies that the employee is entitled to receive one day's salary for each day they were absent without pay in a month.

Good learning.

Sincerely, [Your Name]

As far my opinion, it is a central direction. Please refer to the following expert:
Pay on Public Holidays
Workers are entitled to paid days-off during Festival (public and religious) holidays. These include memorial holidays and religious holidays.
There are many festival and religious holidays in India however only three of these are fully covered national public holidays. These are Republic Day (January 26), Independence Day (August 15) and Mahatama Gandhi's Birthday (October 2). ( National and Festival Holiday Act & The Q++Studio Diary and Calendar Publishing System)
Maharashtra Shops And Establishments (Regulation Of Employment And Conditions Of Service) Act, 2017
The Amendment Act now entitles every worker to casual leave of 8 days in a year. The workers can accumulate earned leave up to a maximum of 45 days. Also, every worker who has worked for a period of 240 days or more in a calendar year shall be allowed paid leave for a number of days calculated at the rate of one day for every twenty days of work performed during the previous year. A worker shall also be entitled to 8 paid festival holidays in a calendar year, namely, 26th January, 1st May, 15th August and 2nd October and four such other festival holidays as may be agreed to between the employer and the workers as per the nature of business, before the commencement of the year.
Maharashtra Shops and Establishment Act, 2017
Holidays and leave – The Act specifies that workers are eligible to eight casual leaves (CLs), and can accumulate 45 days of paid leave during a year. The establishment will declare eight days as paid festival holidays, including four national holidays. The other four festival holidays may be mutually agreed between the establishment and its workers.

Dear friends,

Any unauthorized absence would result in loss of wages based on the doctrine of no work, no wages. Therefore, simply put, the question raised by Sachin is this: "When a regular workman or a casual labor remains absent from work unauthorizedly for two days before and after a national/festival holiday respectively, will he be entitled to wages for that intervening national/festival holiday?"

I would like to take out the case of the casual labor from the question for the obvious reason that the casual laborer would be entitled to wages only for the days he actually works. The question of unauthorized absence in respect of a casual laborer does not arise at all. If there is no work, the employer is not bound to provide him work just because he is present. Similarly, even if there is work, the casual laborer is not bound to report for duty if he so wishes.

As far as I know, there is no exclusive Central Legislation on National and Festival Holidays for industrial employees. Even the various State Laws in this regard do not require the closing down of the place of business of the industrial establishments covered by them on such holidays. Therefore, the employer has the prerogative to require his employees to work on such holidays subject to the conditions laid down therein or declare a holiday with wages. The employees also have the option to work on double wages or to avail of an alternative holiday either before or after three days within.

Coming to the case of a regular workman, continuous unauthorized absence would take away his entitlement to wages for an intervening holiday irrespective of its type. If at all any contrary view is possible, then the follow-up question raised by Mr. Korgaonkar should deserve a positive answer only.

Dear Friends,

To my understanding, basically the queriest asked two questions. First one is in the title of the thread - whether to give extra benefit to a worker on a National or Paid Holiday? I think the queriest means to say extra benefit for working on a National or Paid Holiday. The second one is on intervening National or Paid Holiday.

I would like to give answers to the above questions in my way as follows:

Answer to the first question: Working on a National or Paid Holiday, the employee is at least entitled to wages for working and wages towards a paid holiday or extra holiday, unless there is an agreement between the employees and employer by which better benefits are granted. The MS&E Act 2017 has a provision to this effect in section 18(7) which says double the amount of the average wage plus leave on another day to compensate for the holiday.

Answer to the second question: If both suffix and prefix days to a National or Paid Holiday are loss of pay, then the National or Paid Holiday is to be treated as a loss of pay. If both suffix and prefix days to a National or Paid Holiday are paid leave, then the National or Paid Holiday is to be treated as paid leave. The company can make its own rules in this regard, including if either suffix or prefix days to a National or Paid Holiday are paid or unpaid.

Every aspect cannot be included in any law and rules thereunder. HR fraternity should have logical thinking over every such subject matter, which unfortunately is not seen in the new generation most of the time.