Telangana Shops Act: Does a Weekly Off During Sick Leave Count as Sick Leave?

We come under the Telangana Shops Act. Will the weekly off or paid holiday in between sick leave be treated as sick leave?

Thank you.

If the Telangana S & E Act states something regarding this, then it will be as per the Act. Otherwise, it should be as per the leave policy of the organization. Some organizations consider it as sick leave, but some do not.

If an organization has no leave policy, it has to be made based on local practice.

Regards, S K Bandyopadhyay

Hi, here are a few inputs:

Leave policy alignment

It depends on company policy how the leave policy is aligned and agreed upon. If any leave earned by an employee should not be considered for prefix or suffix as this is an eligibility of such an employee. For example, 20 working days, 1 EL, six-day continuous work, 1 day of rest, or declared holidays, etc.

Consideration of declared holidays

Some establishments will not consider declared holidays as leaves which are approved by the labor department like national and festival holidays.

As a practice, other than national or festival holidays, earned leaves, all other leaves may be treated as part of leaves, like how it is treated for ESI or maternity leaves.

The general practice followed in organized sectors, to my knowledge, is that all intervening (sandwiched) paid holidays and weekly offs shall be treated as EL/PL & SL leave days. However, such weekly offs and/or paid holidays, either suffixed or prefixed, shall not be counted as leave days. This practice is not followed in respect of CL. On the other hand, if your leave policy stipulates differently, then it can be so.

Sick leave policy clarification

Sick leave will be continuous, and therefore, in my opinion, it should cover the holiday or weekly off day as well. The logic is very simple; you can't say that you were sick on Saturday and Monday but perfectly well on Sunday. Therefore, unless otherwise provided in the Act, the holiday or weekly off intervening two sick leaves shall be treated as sick leave.