Retrenchment Compensation: Can Workers Qualify After 240 Days in Over a Year?

If a worker has not completed 240 days, including weekly offs and holidays, within 12 months, but completes it in 13, 14, or 15 months, will they be entitled to receive notice pay and retrenchment compensation? Please advise.

My question is in two parts:

(1) A person has worked 230 days (excluding weekly offs and holidays) in 12 months. If a worker has not completed 240 days (suppose they have worked only 230 days in 12 months), can I include Sundays or off days as well as festival or national holidays with the 230 days? … already replied by you…

(2) A person has worked 247 days (including weekly offs and holidays) in 15 months

But in 12 months, they worked 196 days including weekly offs and holidays, but completed 247 days including weekly offs and holidays in 15 months. Will they be entitled to receive notice pay and retrenchment compensation?

Please suggest.

Sorry, Santhosh, the answer I quoted pertains to your query raised on 18-01-20. However, the principle of the answer equally applies to this as well.

Effective Date for Continuous Service Calculation

The effective date to be reckoned for the purpose of the calculation of continuous service should be the actual date of the proposed retrenchment. If, on that date, the employee has completed 240 days of service during the preceding 12 calendar months, including admissible interruptions under Section 25-B of the ID Act, 1947, he is entitled to notice and retrenchment compensation; if not, he is not entitled.

Dear Santosh,

The following are explanations to your questions:

(1) A workman shall be said to be in continuous service for a period if he is, for that period, in uninterrupted service, including service which may be interrupted on account of sickness, authorized leave, an accident, a strike which is not illegal, a lock-out, or a cessation of work which is not due to any fault on the part of the workman.

(2) Where a workman is not in continuous service within the meaning of clause (1) for a period of one year or six months, he shall be deemed to be in continuous service under an employer for:
(a) a period of one year, if the workman, during a period of twelve calendar months preceding the date with reference to which calculation is to be made, has actually worked under the employer for not less than:
(i) one hundred and ninety days in the case of a workman employed below ground in a mine; and
(ii) two hundred and forty days in any other case;
(b) a period of six months, if the workman, during a period of six calendar months preceding the date with reference to which calculation is to be made, has actually worked under the employer for not less than:
(i) ninety-five days in the case of a workman employed below ground in a mine; and
(ii) one hundred and twenty days in any other case.

Explanation: For the purposes of clause (2), the number of days on which a workman has actually worked under an employer shall include the days on which:
(i) he has been laid-off under an agreement or as permitted by standing orders made under the Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Act, 1946 (20 of 1946), or under this Act or under any other law applicable to the industrial establishment;
(ii) he has been on leave with full wages earned in the previous year;
(iii) he has been absent due to temporary disablement caused by an accident arising out of and in the course of his employment; and
(iv) in the case of a female, she has been on maternity leave, so, however, that the total period of such maternity leave does not exceed twelve weeks.

The act has made it clear that one has to work 240 days within 12 calendar months prior to the date the workmen are getting retrenched. We are confused between the lines and their interpretations.

Your Question No-2: A person has worked 247 days (including weekly off and holidays) in 15 months and is not eligible.

Thank you.