Are There Industry Standards for Leave Policies? Seeking Guidance on Crafting Ours

Hello friends! I work in an advertising company. We are just about to start a policy of leaves in our organization.

Standard Rules for Leave Policies

My query is - are there any standard rules that are applicable to the number of leaves (i.e., whether there is an industry-specific limit on the number of CL, sick leaves, or privileged leaves) when we are formulating the HR policy of an organization?

Please guide me.

Thank you in advance,

Barnali Sengupta

Understanding Management's View on Leave Limits

First of all, you need to know management's view regarding the limits of Casual Leave (CL) and Sick Leave. Also, you need to peruse your State's Shops & Commercial Establishments Act to ascertain statutory requirements.

No Thumb Rule for Granting Leaves

Kindly note that there is no thumb rule for granting leaves. Some employee-friendly companies grant more leaves, while some companies grant fewer.

The only point you need to bear in mind is that whatever the leave, the leave limit should not be less than the limit prescribed under the labor statute of your state.

Exploring Various Leave Policies

There are immense numbers of policies on leave, and you may go through them before framing the leave policy of your company.

If you can post your draft of the policy, any senior member of this forum shall properly structure the same.

Thank you for your reply. Can you please guide me further with the following:

1. Instead of differentiating the leaves under various heads like CL/SL/PL, can we have a bouquet of 12-14 leaves which the employee can use as per requirement? Or is it mandatory to have the leaves differentiated? Is there any limit (minimum cutoff) that we have to put on leaves, like CL-7 days, ML-10 days, etc.? We are an advertising agency.

2. Out of this bouquet of leaves, can we have some unavailed leaves carried forward to the next year? Is there any minimum number/percentage of leaves that we need to carry forward?

I will be greatly obliged if you help me with these queries. Looking forward to your earliest response.

Thanking you in advance,

With best regards,

Barnali Sengupta

Please refer to the Bengal Shop & Establishment Act and the rules for the details of the leaves and their breakup as required under the law. Also refer to the Model Standing Orders for West Bengal, which will provide the breakup of leaves for offices with more than 50 employees. As Mr. Nair has said, you should ensure your leaves are at least equal to the minimum number stated there.

You may refer to this document put up by the West Bengal Government. Section 11 has the details you need, including the carry-forward regulations.

https://wblc.gov.in/sites/default/fi...ct,%201963.pdf