Leave Policies in Pharma: Are Field and Office Staff Treated Differently in Kerala?

We have around 250 field staff and 25 office staff. I would like to know the minimum EL/PL, SL, and CL. Is there a different policy for field and office staff?

Field Staff Responsibilities

Field staff means, are they involved in marketing, sampling, or rural public health types of tasks? Nevertheless, as long as they remain your regular employees and are on your payroll, there is no possibility of treating them differently. Of course, the duty hours could vary depending on the nature of duties and responsibilities. However, if the terms and conditions of appointment list certain regulations, there cannot be a different opinion on this.

Eligibility for Leave

Eligibility for EL/PL and CL would depend on what type of business entity registration your organization has taken, such as a partnership firm, shop and commercial establishment, factory/industry, etc. This is necessary to determine which act would apply to your organization.

Dear friend, whenever a company has multifarious activities like manufacturing, marketing, and general administrative/managerial functions associated with its business operations, the service conditions of employees engaged in each such activity can vary according to the specific labor laws applicable. Since yours is a pharma company, it may have its manufacturing facility covered exclusively by the Factories Act, 1948, administrative offices covered by the State Shops & Estt Act, and a marketing team with separate sales promotion employees covered by the Sales Promotion Employees Act, 1976. Since the leave provisions of these Acts are different, you cannot have a uniform leave policy for all these employees unless your management is prepared to grant concessions based on the highest leave benefit available under a particular Act to all employees alike, irrespective of their roles. You may please see my reply to the thread "Leave Policy - Sales Promotion Employees Act/Shop and Establishment Act/Factory Act."

Thank you for your response. To clarify, "field staff" refers to the marketing team (medical representatives), while "office staff" includes roles such as administration, accounts, finance, and HR.

I have reviewed the Shop and Establishment Act of Kerala but still find it challenging to understand the questions I have raised. Could you please provide further clarification on the following:

1. What are the minimum entitlements for Earned Leave (EL), Privilege Leave (PL), Sick Leave (SL), and Casual Leave (CL)?

2. Is there a distinct policy for field staff compared to office staff? Based on your previous response, it seems there might be a difference. Kindly explain this in the context of my query.

Yes, you are right. As pointed out by the learned member Mr. Umakanthan, there are special acts and conditions applicable to employees on field duty, especially those engaged in sales promotion/marketing in the pharmaceutical industry. The excerpts from the act, such as definitions and leave rules, are as follows. The full text of the bare act and notification is attached for your guidance.

The Sales Promotion Employees (Conditions of Service) Act, 1976

(No. 11 of 1976) [25th January, 1976]
An Act to regulate certain conditions of service of sales promotion employees in certain establishments.

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"2. Definition.- In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires,-
(a) “establishment” means an establishment engaged in the pharmaceutical industry or in any notified industry;
(b) “notified industry” means an industry declared as such under section 3;
(c) “prescribed” means prescribed by rules made under this Act;
(d) “sales promotion employee” means any person by whatever name called (including an apprentice) employed or engaged in any establishment for hire or reward to do any work relating to the promotion of sales or business, or both, but does not include any such person-
(i) who, being employed or engaged in a supervisory capacity, draws wages exceeding sixteen hundred rupees per month; or
(ii) who is employed or engaged mainly in a managerial or administrative capacity.

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Leave

(1) In addition to such holidays, casual leave, or other kinds of leave as may be prescribed, every sales promotion employee shall be granted, if so requested for-
(a) earned leave on full wages for not less than one-eleventh of the period spent on duty;
(b) leave on medical certificate on one-half of the wages for not less than one-eighteenth of the period of service.
(2) The maximum limit up to which a sales promotion employee may accumulate earned leave shall be such as may be prescribed.
(3) The limit up to which the earned leave may be availed of at a time by a sales promotion employee and the reasons for which such limit may be exceeded shall be such as may be prescribed.
(4) A sales promotion employee shall,-
(a) when he voluntarily relinquishes his post or retires from service, or
(b) when his services are terminated for any reason whatsoever (not being termination as punishment), be entitled to cash compensation, subject to such conditions and restrictions as may be prescribed (including conditions by way of specifying the maximum period for which such cash compensation shall be payable), in respect of the earned leave by him and not availed of.
(5) Where a sales promotion employee dies while in service, his heirs shall be entitled to cash compensation for the earned leave earned by him and not availed of.
(6) The cash compensation which will be payable to a sales promotion employee or, as the case may be, his heirs in respect of any period of earned leave for which he or his heirs, as the case may be, is or are entitled to cash compensation under sub-section (4) or sub-section (5), as the case may be, shall be an amount equal to the wages due to such sales promotion employee for such period.

Issue of Appointment Letter

Every employer in relation to a sales promotion employee shall furnish to such employee a letter of appointment, in such form as may be prescribed.
(a) in a case where he holds appointment as such at the commencement of this Act, within three months of such commencement; and
(b) in any other case, on his appointment as such.

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Also refer to discussions that took place in this link-
https://www.citehr.com/166269-calcul...oyees-act.html