How Can We Legally Manage Frequent Sick Leaves Without Disrupting Operations?

Dear All,

I have recently joined as an HR in a private limited company in Delhi. We operate on a 5-day workweek and have a policy of 20 working days of leave in a year, including earned leaves, sick leaves, and casual leaves.

Please advise if this policy aligns with legal requirements. Also, some of our employees are taking 3-4 days of leave per month due to sickness, which is impacting our operations. Can we implement measures to reduce the frequency of such absences?

Thank you

Hi,

With regard to leave entitlement, please follow what the ACT says. As far as sick leaves are concerned, please determine whether they are genuine or fake. For any leave beyond three days, you can ask for medical proof and insist on lab results if available. If the reason for leave is genuine (sickness), you need to accommodate it.

In general, for repeated leaves, you can counsel employees on how their absence has impacted the team's performance, etc.

Leave rules for establishments in Delhi

Leave rules for any shop or establishment registered in Delhi, irrespective of 5 days working or 6 days working, are as follows:

Privilege, Sickness, or Casual Leave

Every employee who becomes entitled to privilege leave under subsection 1 (a) of section 22 may apply in writing to the employer, indicating in advance the date and period for which they would like to avail of this leave during the ensuing twelve months. No such leave should ordinarily be refused by the employer, except for valid cause. In all other cases, the employee should apply in writing ordinarily 15 days in advance, and the employer should make a decision within 7 days of receiving the application. Additionally, the employer should not refuse any application that would deprive the employee of their right to carry over accumulated privilege leave.

Casual & Sick Leave

(a) (i) Normally, the employee should seek prior permission from the employer for casual leave. However, if this is not possible, the employer should be informed in writing as soon as practicable for the grant of such leave. The employer should document their decision on all such applications and retain them until March 31 of the following year.

(ii) An employer may refuse an application for casual leave from an employee due to exceptional work pressure requiring the employee's attendance on the requested days, except in cases of accidents causing physical injury to the employee, death in the family, or sickness of the employee, their wife, or child.

(iii) If an application for casual leave is denied by the employer based on exceptional work pressure, the employer should provide equivalent leave upon demand by the employee in the same calendar year.

(b) (i) No application from an employee for sickness leave should be refused. However, if the employer is not satisfied with the information provided, the employer may require the employee to submit a medical certificate from a registered medical practitioner or have the employee, their wife, or child examined by a registered medical practitioner (a lady doctor in the case of females) at the employer's expense to verify the facts stated in the leave application. The employer can then grant or reject the application based on the medical certificate.

(ii) Each medical certificate should be retained by the employer until March 31 of the following year.