Grace Period for Reporting to Work Removed: Can We Advocate for Its Return?

Respected Sir/Madam,

Please guide me. Our organization initially provided us with a 10-minute grace period to report for duty, but now it has been removed and communicated through a circular. Are there specific rules that justify this change? How can we reinstate this facility?

Dear Ramesh,

The grace period is an extended period granted as a special favor. An employee may start from home at a fixed time, but sometimes, contingencies may arise because of traffic bottlenecks or other issues. To provide cover for such one-off events, a grace period is given.

While reporting for duties, whether to grant this special favor or not is the employer's prerogative. If the employer withdraws it, then the employees cannot question it.

Unfortunately, some employees misuse the facility of grace time perennially. If you check the employees' punching records, you might observe that a few employees avail themselves of the grace time with utmost regularity. Suppose, on average, an employee reports late for duties by five minutes. If he/she does it 120 times, the total late-coming works out to 600 minutes. That is as good as one man-day. Is this not a big loss for the organization? This calculation is just for one employee. If the loss is calculated for all employees, then the cumulative loss could be far greater.

Thanks,

Dinesh Divekar

Dear Ramesh,

Are you asking this question from a legal point of view or about other available options? It is the employer's right to withdraw any grace period that they think is no longer desirable. You can, however, appeal to them to restore it, and then it depends on how they view the violation and why it was withdrawn in the first place.

If you are asking for a legal remedy, the withdrawal (if documented earlier as part of your HR policy, terms of employment, or standing orders) amounts to a change of terms of service, and the procedure specified in the Industrial Dispute Act needs to be followed. However, such a move will ultimately be approved; the employer just has to follow some process, give notice, and ultimately, after some time elapses, it becomes the new procedure. It is unlikely that you will be able to keep it through enforcement.