Leave Entitlement Confusion: Should Excess EL Be Deducted or Adjusted with CL?

Leave Entitlement and Pay Deduction Query

Our organization is a society located in Gurgaon (Haryana), registered under the Societies Registration Act and also under the Punjab & Haryana Shops & Establishments Act.

Under our establishment's Leave Rules, an employee is entitled to the following leaves:
- EL: 15 Days
- CL: 12 Days
- National/Regional Holidays: 10 Days

According to the Leave Rules, EL & CL cannot be clubbed, and CL cannot be availed for more than 2 days. One day of EL and one day of CL is credited to the employee's account at the beginning of each month. The balance of 3 EL days is credited as 1 day EL for the months of Oct, Nov & Dec.

Pay Deduction Scenarios

Can anyone please advise if a deduction of pay will be applicable in the following examples:
a) An employee has 4 days of EL and 3 days of CL due to him.
b) He takes EL leave for 4 days but joins after 6 days.

Question

Should I deduct 2 days' salary from his pay (as excess EL is availed), or can the excess leave be adjusted against the CL leave balance? The rules state that EL & CL cannot be clubbed together.

Can any of our learned members provide an answer ASAP?

Regards

Dear Friend,

As your leave rules specifically state that EL & CL cannot be clubbed, any additional absence over and above the eligible leave is considered an absence. Therefore, you can deduct the salary for the extra 2 days availed.

Regards,
Kamesh

Thank you, friend Kamesh 333.

One other related question, please: Although the Punjab & Haryana Shops & Establishments Act stipulates that un-availed EL leaves can be carried forward into the next year (up to 40 days maximum, I think), our Management has ruled this out saying that "these are guidelines only, an establishment can choose to follow or not to follow these rules as it is not a Government organization".

Is this stand correct?

Regards,
Bhaskar J. Roy