Navigating Leave Policies: How Should Our Startup Handle Sick and Casual Leaves?

Dear All,

We are a startup IT company located in Karnataka. We now have around 10+ employees in our organization. We have recently registered under ESIC for our employees.

Leave Types and Policies

In our company, we have:

- Privilege Leaves: 15 days (Carry forwarded for the next year, with a maximum allowed 30 days of Privilege Leave in a year)
- Casual Leaves: 12 days (As suggested by our labor lawyer)
- Sick Leaves: 0 (As per the labor lawyer, sick leave is not applicable for employees who come under ESIC)
- Compensatory Off: Still not implemented
- Leave Without Pay: 12 days

Queries on Leave Types and Limitations

1) Is it true that employees who come under ESIC are not eligible for Sick Leave? What needs to be set for employees who have a salary above the ESIC limit?

2) Do Sick Leaves need to be implemented for all employees?

3) Casual Leaves: How many can be taken at once? And how much time difference has to be kept with each application for casual leave?

4) How many Compensatory Off days need to be given in a calendar year?

5) What is the good practice for the maximum Leave Without Pay days in a year?

Thank you.

Hi Friend,

Below mentioned is my answer.

1. In Karnataka, sick leave cum casual leave is 12 days. Employees can avail the same whenever they require (Applicable to all employees).

2. An employee needs to avail a weekly off after working continuously for 6 working days. If he works for the 7th day, it needs to be considered as overtime.

3. There is no specific rule for LOP. It depends on the workload and manager approval.

Hope this clears your doubt.

Hi Friend,

Please find the answers below:

1) Sick leave is not applicable for employees covered under ESI.

2) Ideally, 6 sick leaves are given to confirmed employees as a standard practice. An employee on probation is not eligible to avail sick leave unless they are confirmed.

3) At a time, 2 CL can be availed as it is usually given to meet any exigency that may occur. A day's gap is enough for CL.

4) Leaves over and above the allotted leaves are considered as Loss of Pay, with no limit.

I hope this helps. Let me know if you need any further clarification.