How Does Unpaid Leave Affect Employee Bonus Calculations? Seeking Advice!

Employee Bonus Calculation for Unpaid Leave

An employee has a gross salary, excluding HRA, of 10,000. He is eligible for a bonus as follows:

Apr18 May18 Jun18 Jul18 Aug18 Sept18 Oct18 Nov18 Dec18 Jan19 Feb19 Mar19 Total Bonus FY18-19
7000 7000 7000 7000 7000 7000 7000 7000 7000 7000 7000 7000 84000 84000*8.33% = 6997

Here, the bonus per month is calculated as 7000*8.33% = 583. Suppose he was on 15 days of unpaid leave in Nov.18. Therefore, his gross salary in Nov.18 is calculated as 10000*15/30 = 5000.

Now, for the 15 days of Nov.18, he will receive a bonus from the following options:

Option A: 5000*8.33% = 416
Or
Option B: 583*15/30 = 292

Kindly suggest the answer.

I think that the query arises for the poster only because of his attempt to calculate the bonus on a monthly basis. He may refer to Section 13 of the Payment of Bonus Act, 1965, which deals with proportionate deduction in bonus in the case of employees who have not worked for all the working days in an accounting year. Section 10 of the Act states that the minimum bonus shall be 8.33% of the salary or wages earned by the employee during the accounting year. If the employee received only Rs. 5000 for the month of November 2018 because of 15 days of LLOP, automatically his total salary for the accounting year 2018-19 would be proportionately less. Even when limited to the notional amount of Rs. 7000 per month, it is going to be (7000 x 11) + (7000/2) Rs. 80500, and as such, 8.33% is Rs. 6706. Then why such an exercise on a monthly basis?