Navigating Festival Holidays: Should Vendor Staff Get All 10 Days Off or Just 8?

Hi, We have declared 10 festival holidays for our office for the year 2024, with a weekly off on Saturday and Sunday. We have outsourced our facility activities to a vendor, with a weekly off on Sunday. So, do we need to give our vendor staff all the 10 holidays declared by our company, or can we declare 8 annual holidays (4 National & 4 Festival) as per the Bombay S & E Act?

Handling Holidays on Saturdays

How do we treat 3 major festivals falling on a Saturday? We are not keen on declaring additional holidays and expect them to work as usual on Saturdays.

Maharashtra Government Holiday Declaration

Also, the Maharashtra Government has declared 24 holidays, so is it normal to pay these employees normal wages if they work on 16 non-declared holidays (24 - 8) by our company?

Thanks & Regards, Shravan

Hi,

A few inputs:

- Employees should not work continuously for 7 days without a day of rest.
- Every employee is entitled to national and festival holidays, and working on national/festival holidays attracts double the rate of wages.
- Employers should notify the holiday list for the year to the government and display it in the office premises.
- Based on business requirements, employers can adjust holidays or permit work on holidays, provided that wages are paid at double the rate. This should be notified or recorded and maintained by the labor department.

Paid Holidays Falling on Weekly Off Days

The paid holiday falling on the weekly off day will either lapse or be compensated with a day's salary in lieu of the paid holidays that have lapsed due to intervening with weekly off days.

Management Decisions on Festival Holidays

To avoid such incidents, the management decides the festival holidays with the consent of the union or employees prior to fixation or declaration. The National & Festival Holidays Act allows for substitution on a later date as well, in the prescribed form.

Establishment Policies on Festival Holidays

In view of the above problems, most establishments follow a well-drafted policy. Some establishments have adopted the policy of selecting four festivals they wish to avail of, instead of fixed festivals.

Government Holidays and Compliance

The 24 holidays announced by the government are for government offices and for compliance with the NI Act. It is an indicative list, and you are not required to give all of them. Maharashtra does not have a Festivals Holiday Act, so you are basically required to give the 4 national holidays, and norms are to give a total of 8 or 10 holidays in the year.

Rules for Contract and Vendor Employees

Your rules for your own and contract/vendor employees are not required to be the same. So, you can have different rules for the contract workers. The major issue for you will be for the Saturdays which are festival days. Whether to work on those days or not depends on various factors, including how critical that particular function is. If possible, just give those 3 extra days to them or pay an overtime allowance. I do not think it makes any sense to cause a dispute over a small amount.

Hi Saravan,

What's your normal practice? Are you following a 6-day or 5-day work week? If you follow a 6-day week, then it is not a problem as you have to declare a paid holiday for such holiday Saturday. The question only arises in the case of 5-day working establishments. So, any listed holiday falling on a Saturday can be a paid holiday. What is the issue then?

If you have a problem listing the holidays, then you must necessarily have holidays on 3 national festivals, viz., 26th Jan (Republic Day), 15th Aug (Independence Day), and 2nd Oct (Gandhi Jayanthi). In addition, you can also have Dr. Ambedkar's Jayanthi in April. Leaving these 4 days listed, other holidays are left to your practice and local customs. It's generally in line with the Negotiable Instruments Act for working convenience. There are no other problems.