Navigating Privilege Leave Rules: Can We Set a 20-Day Work Requirement for PL Eligibility?

We are following the Delhi Shop & Establishment Act in our company. As per the Act, 15 PL days are mandatory per year, which is 1.25 PL days per month.

However, it is not specified how many working days an employee is eligible for PL in a month. Therefore, I have the following queries:

1. Can we create a policy stating that an employee must work (be present in the office or work from home) for 20 or more days in a month (excluding weekends/holidays/casual or sick leave) to be eligible for PL? Is this permissible?

2. Is it acceptable if we do not compensate for PL days during an employee's exit or offboarding process?

Dear friend,

To clearly understand the provisions of privilege leave under the Delhi Shops and Establishments Act, 1954, I would like to insist that one has to give a meticulous reading of the subsections (1)(a), proviso (i), (1A), and (2) of section 22 of the Act, which deal with the various kinds of leave admissible under the Act.

Yes, it is correct that there is no mention of PL on a per month basis. The reason is that the employee's eligibility for PL is linked to the length of his continuous service in the establishment as follows:

As per section 22(1)(a), an employee becomes eligible for 15 days of PL after completing 12 months of continuous service in the establishment.

As per proviso (i) to section 22(1), he becomes eligible for 5 days of PL only after completing 4 months of continuous service in the establishment.

Therefore, there is no need for the exercise of pro-rata basis sanction per month. The employer may sanction the PL applied for subject to the limit or refuse it.

The above answer applies to your first query. For the purpose of the computation of continuous service, all authorized absences have to be included.

"No" is the answer to your second query in view of section 22(2) of the Act.

You may go through the above provisions once again.