Is It Legal to Deduct Salary for Lateness Despite Having Leave Balance? Seeking Guidance

Kindly guide that the staff has many leaves in their leave bank such as CL/EL/ML, etc. Still, there are rules to deduct one day's salary if the staff is late more than thrice in a month and has leave balance. Can we do so in terms of legality?

Policy on Late Arrivals and Early Departures

Late incoming or early outgoing, if not authorized and approved by the controlling manager, will amount to absence. It's purely the call of the company how many such instances should be allowed to be condoned. For such incidences, you can deduct half a day for each late/early case.

Gradual Implementation and Cultural Considerations

However, you need to communicate about the same and consider the cultural change issues. It is advisable to proceed gradually; initially, allow three instances, then after another three months, allow two, and then only one instance in a month for being late or leaving early by more than 2 hours. This process needs to be approved by the respective controlling manager so he can certify that it is not for official duty.

Regards, Shailesh Parikh
[Phone Number Removed For Privacy-Reasons]
Vadodara

Having leaves in an employee's account and attendance issues are two different matters. In my opinion, it is entirely at the company's discretion to mark leave instead of deducting half a day.

Hi,

Yes, as per policy, you can deduct from the salary. However, one may also consider deducting from the available leave.

Thank you.

Habitual late-coming as misconduct

Habitual late-coming to resume allotted duty amounts to an act of misconduct within the meaning of standing orders or service rules, as the case may be. Effective management would NEVER "adjust" leave for the period of late-coming for any reason whatsoever. Permitting late-coming sets a bad precedent and directly and adversely affects the creation of wealth and the sense of organizational well-being—the true purpose of business. Exercise of discretion on the part of management needs to be effective.

Kritarth Team, 12 Dec 2018