Employee Absent for a Month: Do I Pay for Holidays and Weekly Offs?

An employee is absent for a full month except for 3 days. Do I need to pay him for weekly offs or any public holidays that precede the day of his absence from the job?

Hi,

Not at all. Once the employee absconds from duty, he/she will not be eligible for any benefits, including salary, leave, national, or festival holidays. Please process the disciplinary proceedings and close the file after following the stipulated process.

I have a slightly different opinion regarding National Holidays. For National Holidays, if the employee is on the rolls, he should be paid wages. "Provided that no such employee shall be entitled to be paid any wages for any of the holidays allowed under section 3, other than the 26th January, the 15th August (“the 1st May and the 2nd October”) unless he has been in the service under the employer for a total period of thirty days within a continuous period of ninety days immediately preceding such holiday."

Mr. Babu,

Once the employee does not report to duty without any information, he will not be eligible for any leave, salary, or other benefits. All his periods of absence have to be considered as loss of pay as they are unapproved and unjustified leaves.

"Absence from Work and Employer's Prerogative

"Absence from work" by the employee implies the employer's prerogative to withhold payment of wages or salary proportionately under the contract of employment. Besides, the contract also empowers the employer to initiate disciplinary action against the employee if such absence is unauthorized or even uninformed. Conversely, any leave of absence formally availed becomes authorized absence, and the question of wages/salary for such a period is decided by the leave at credit of the concerned employee's leave account.

Scenario Analysis

Coming to the scenario presented in the post, the employee has worked in the particular month for 3 days only, and on all other days, he was absent. The presumption here is that the absence was totally uninformed and unauthorized as well. Therefore, he is not entitled to wages/salary except for the 3 days he was present for duty in the month. In such a situation, the weekly off days and other holidays prior to as well as after the 3 days of presence at work get automatically merged with the period of absence, and there cannot be any deemed sanction of a weekly off and national holiday independent of the period of unauthorized absence, so as to enable the absentee to claim wages/salary."

Dear friend,

Please refer to your leave policy or standing order. If both are not in place, then the person is legally eligible for NH & FH provided he/she should have attendance on the day before the NH/FH and the subsequent day of NH/FH.