How Do You Calculate Comp-Off and Handle Late Marks or Half-Days in Your Company?

Dear All,

I am new to this group and I am finding the topics and the information shared here very useful. I am working with a Software Product Development Company as an HR Executive, and I am in the process of revamping a few policies for my company. I would kindly request someone to help me with the Comp-Off Policy.

a. I wanted to know on what basis Comp-Off should be ideally calculated.

b. Currently, we have a practice of deducting a day's salary for three late marks in a month. I wanted to know if late marks can be adjusted against Comp-Off.

c. I also would like to know if half-days can be adjusted with Comp-Off.

I would be really thankful if someone among you all helps me out with these details and shares the practices that exist in their company. Thanks in advance.

Hi Shraddha,

Under the "Bombay Shops and Establishments Act," each employee is to be granted one weekly day off from work. The concept of a "Compensatory Off" is a day given to an employee when he/she has worked on a declared holiday of the organization or on his/her weekly day off.

Are you deducting a day's salary or a day's leave for 3 late marks in the month? A day's salary sounds a little harsh, and usually, it is a day's leave that is deducted for every 3 late marks in a month, unless the employee doesn't have any more leaves to his/her credit, then the salary may be deducted. I don't think that you can adjust these against a comp off, or you will have employees coming in late and willing to work on holidays too!

Adjusting half days with a comp off may be possible, but employees need to understand that the adjustment is between half a day of work and one day of comp off. Hope this helps you a little!

Regards,
Chanchal

Dear Chanchal,

The information you shared was really useful. We deduct one day of leave out of the two days of monthly leave an employee is allowed. If the employee has no leave balance, then it is taken as a negative leave balance. I am currently planning to change one more structure wherein an employee will be allowed to have a negative leave balance only up to -5; any number of days beyond -5 would be deducted from the employee's salary with prior intimation to him/her. Kindly suggest if this would be the right practice as we have employees whose negative balance has crossed -15, and nothing has really been happening about it.

Thank you.

Regards,
Shraddha.

Dear Shraddha,

Glad to be of help to you!

Personally, I don't agree to there being any negative leaves in an organization because you may find employees taking advantage of the same, especially since there can be no limit - just like you have said that an employee has -15 leaves! This may work in an organization with fewer employees but may not work in an organization with around 200-300 employees.

Employees must understand the importance of attendance. This doesn't mean that you need to be a school master and stand with a bell and the muster at the gate, but they need to understand that they are responsible and mature adults who come to work to do a certain job, and that job requires accountability to the HR department in the form of adherence to attendance.

From what I can understand from your message is that employees have taken advantage of the situation, especially since there is no "con" side to the equation - i.e., they still get their salary, leaves are being added every month anyway, and will offset the negative leaves someday. So, your organization as a whole needs to start thinking in a new direction, and you as the HR would be responsible for the new direction!

Hope this helps you a little!

Regards,

Chanchal

Shraddha,

The policy of comp-off depends on how the management wants to implement the same. As our company is product-based, we have a slightly more flexible policy which states:
1. Comp-off cannot be combined with CL.
2. It can be combined with EL.
3. It has to be availed within 90 days, or the comp-off will lapse.
4. We grant comp-off for extra working hours for our employees, for example: up to four hours for half a day, 4-7 hours for one day, etc.
5. We have flexible timings for our employees.
6. Lastly, I believe you can adjust late coming through comp-off.

Cordially,
Preet

Hi,

I am in the process of updating the policies of our company. Please send me a few samples for compensatory time-off policies.

Looking forward to your inputs.

Pooja Sharma

Comp-Off Policy Implementation

The policy of comp-off depends on how the management wants to implement it. As our company is a product-based company, we have a slightly more flexible policy which states:

• Comp-off cannot be combined with CL.
• It can be combined with EL.
• It has to be availed within 90 days, or the comp-off will lapse.
• We give comp-off for extra working hours for our employees, for example, up to four hours for half a day, 4-7 hours for one day, etc.
• We have flexible timings for our employees.
• Last but not least, you could, I think, adjust the late coming from comp-off.

Cordially,
Preet

Hi, can anyone suggest whether comp-off can be carried forward to the next year as well? For example, if I work on 25th Dec '10, can I take my comp-off on 3rd January '11? Kindly suggest.

Regards,
Jitendra