Understanding Leave Entitlement: Is It 20 Days of Work or Continuous Employment?

1234DD1234
As per the Amended Shop Act 2017, it states that an employee is eligible for 1 day of leave for every 20 days worked.

Can someone help me understand if it is 20 days of work or 20 days of continuous employment? And is there any document to support this?
umakanthan53
Understanding Earned Leave

The leave you've mentioned is called Earned Leave, Annual Leave With Wages, or Privilege Leave, depending on the nomenclature used by the concerned establishment-specific Labour Law. Simply put, it is a leave earned by the employee by working a minimum number of days in a given period to avail it during the succeeding period, subject to prior sanction by the employer. If not availed, it can be accumulated up to a certain ceiling. The calculation of such leave and the employee's right to claim it are conditioned by the number of days worked by the employee in the establishment.

As you mentioned, the rate of calculation of such leave is one day for every 20 days worked. The employee becomes entitled to it only in the years following the completion of the first year of service in the establishment.

Understanding Continuous Service

As you already know, "continuous service" in a year generally means uninterrupted service of 240 days in the preceding 12 calendar months, including interruptions of weekly holidays, authorized leave, sickness absence, employment accidents, legal strikes, lockouts, layoffs, or work cessation not due to the employee's fault. In the words of the higher judiciary, it does not mean only the days the employee works with pen or hammer and sickle and being paid for it. If you divide the 240 days by 12, you get 20 days per month.

It is important to bear in mind that only for the purpose of the computation of the actual period of continuous service, the permissible interruptions should be taken into account and not for the calculation of earned leave. In other words, the days of permissible interruptions would only determine the eligibility criterion, but not the number of days of leave.
1234DD1234
Thank you, sir.

Does it mean that an employee is entitled to 1 day of PL per month? i.e., 12 PL days in a year.
bijay_majumdar
Yes, Uma Kantan Sir has mentioned the earned leave entitlement criteria. In a year, 240 days of work are mentioned in the relevant act, and a day's work is 08 hours. (Refer to Section 79(1) - Annual leave with wages)
Pk biswal
Dear sir,

I am seeking clarification on the calculation of earned leave (EL) based on the total present days. I would like to confirm whether the total working days should include EL, casual leave (CL), or any other type of leave that an employee has taken, or if it should only consider the physical present days.

Please provide clarification on this matter.

Thank you.
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