HR Dilemma: Should We Offer Paid Leave for Overseas Fellowships?

HR Policy for Overseas Fellowship

An engineering college sends an employee out of the country for research or a fellowship. The university where he is supposed to do the fellowship offers boarding and lodging charges only for 3 months. The fellowship duration is 3 months. His paid on-duty leave has been approved by the payroll college. Apart from that, no other financial benefit has been provided to him. In this case, what HR policy should be followed? Should we give paid duty leaves or leave without pay?

Your college management needs to make a decision on this.

If your employee has earned leave to his credit, you may sanction the same so that he will get his salary credited in India, which can be used by his dependents.

If your college has a system or policy of granting paid on-duty leave, please follow the same for the benefit of the employee.

Hi, It is the Engineering College (Employer) who deputes the employee to a foreign country for research/fellowship. So there is no question of leave arising here. It should be considered on duty with pay. Boarding and lodging are provided by the foreign university. Any other incidental expenses of the employee are to be borne by the Indian Engineering College either on actuals or some per diem, which can be fixed based on grade entitlement.

Therefore, it should be considered an official deputation, and no leave should be adjusted from the employee's leave account. Salary should be processed and credited to the Indian bank account of the employee. HR can collect attendance details from the foreign university if required. Employees are eligible for holidays/weekend off as per the deputed country's leave pattern.

In my college, there is no policy for fellowship as of now. My question is, from an HR perspective, should we grant paid duty leave to an employee who has been serving the organization for more than 20 years and is a professor?

What should be the ethical and logical response we provide to the management?

Please advise.

Hi, As already clarified here and through private message, the important question is: who initiated the deputation? Was it the college or the senior professor?

If the college is deputing the senior professor for their gain, then it is the responsibility of the engineering college to pay salary, arrange travel, and provide accommodation in the foreign country.

Alternatively, if the senior professor made a request for this research or fellowship in a foreign country for personal development, then their period of absence can be adjusted against accrued leave balance, taken as leave without pay, or considered a break-in-service without salary at the sole discretion of the engineering college management.

If you don't have a policy for this, it is high time to develop one for such travels and get it approved by the engineering college management.

Hello, From your post, it may be construed that your employee (Professor) has gone for a fellowship because of his academic interest. In this case, you can consider adjusting his remuneration by aligning it with his earned leave balance.

Institution Responsibility for Salary Payments

If your institution nominated him to conduct research work at a foreign university, it becomes the responsibility of your institution to take care of his salary payments for the benefit of his family members (dependents). I fully agree with my friend LN on this.

Devising an HR Policy

Considering the above comments, you may want to start devising an HR policy so that it can be referenced if a similar case arises in the future.

The HR policy to be followed in this case depends on the specific policies of the engineering college. If the employee's on-duty leave has been approved and they will receive their regular salary, paid duty leaves should be granted. If the employee will not receive their salary during the fellowship, they may need to take leave without pay. Refer to the college's policies or consult with HR for clarification.