Can Employees Mix Different Leave Types? Seeking Clarity on Leave Rules and Procedures

Dear All,

In our organization, the following leaves are allowed:

1) Casual Leave
2) Sick Leave
3) Earned Leave
4) Compensatory Off

I have a doubt: can any employee use the above leaves in combinations? For example, if an employee wants 10 days of leave, is the following sequence correct?

EL EL EL EL SL SL C.Off EL EL W.Off EL

Our manager advises that all Compensatory Offs should be used at the beginning or end and not in between, as shown in the example above.

Kindly provide guidance on the leave rules and procedures.

Regards,
Chandra Sekhar

Hi Sekhar,

I understand your query. It depends on your company policy whether to club ELs and CLs or not. Most companies do not club CLs and ELs or any other form of leave. However, if your organization has blue-collar employees, you may need to be a bit more liberal with them and allow them to club leaves. Nonetheless, this decision ultimately rests with your HR Lead or Manager. I hope this answers your question. If you have any doubts, please feel free to reach out.

Sunanda, C Off means Compensatory Off. If an employee works on any national holidays, they would be given Compensatory Off to make up for the day they worked on a national holiday or public day. I hope this clears up your doubt as well.

Regards,
Kiran.

Hello Chandra Sekhar,

To start with, let me focus your attention on the objectives of the leaves. Each type of leave that you have mentioned has been evolved with an objective in mind. They are to serve the purpose of both the employers and employees.

For example:

EL - It is a privileged leave earned by the employee after working for 20 full working days in a company. Thus, availing this leave should be at the discretion/freedom of the employee. Of course, his application for availing EL could be refused if his presence is very much required for the company during the period he has applied for leave, but it generally doesn't happen.

SL - It is meant solely for medical/health purposes. It is very natural for any of us to fall sick without prior understanding. So, to take care of these emergencies, it could be used. It is not fair on the part of employees to abuse it by combining it with EL to extend the leave.

CL - It is designed to handle casual emergencies at a personal level. For example, it may happen that a relative drops in from another station without notice, some urgent bank work, booking a new gas or telephone connection, children's school or college admission, etc., which take about half or a full day of an employee's time and are unavoidable. Basically, it is meant for an unplanned activity of unavoidable nature. Therefore, in my opinion, if it is used in combination with EL, it may be considered an abuse.

Now, it's up to you and your management to design a policy on availing leaves in combination.

SAI KIRAN

Hi Sekhar,

I agree with Sai Kiran. I would like to add one point regarding clubbing compensatory off with any type of leave; we should add prior to commencement of leave or after the expiry of leave.

Regards,
Dabas

Dear Friend,

Regarding the CL, SL, it's a company's policy depending on the understanding between the management and employees. Regarding the EL, C.Off as per the Factories Act (if in the Indian Companies).

i.e. every employee works 20 days continuously works 1 day EL will be accumulated (for adults). But some of the companies are total package 30 days of EL will be given per year. Even though the quantum of leaves is there, the concerned HR person will draft the "Leave Rules" and get the approval from the Management. In my view, the following is an example:

ALL THE EMPLOYEES

All the Employees are hereby informed that the following leaves and leave rules are introduced and will come into force with effect from: _____________

1. CASUAL LEAVES 12 Per Year

2. SICK LEAVES 12 Per Year

3. EARNED LEAVES 15 Per Year (Approx. As per Factories Act)

1. CASUAL LEAVE

a) An employee may be granted casual leave for a maximum of 12 days during the calendar year (i.e. 1st January to 31st December).

b) An employee who is appointed during the course of the year shall be entitled to it on a pro-rata basis.

c) Save in exceptional circumstances, casual leave will not be granted for more than three days at a time.

d) Any absence of more than the number of days allowed for casual leave shall, when not due to sickness, be treated as unauthorized absence from duty.

e) If a holiday falls in between casual leave, the leave will be treated as earned leave.

f) Unavailed casual leave will be lapsed at the end of the year.

2. SICK LEAVE

a) An employee may be granted sick leave for a maximum of 12 days during the calendar year (i.e. 1st January to 31st December).

b) Sick leave will be considered only for two days; more than two days will be considered with the support of a medical certificate. The supported medical certificate should be issued by a Registered Medical Practitioner not below the rank of an MBBS doctor.

c) Unavailed sick leave will be carried forward to the next year.

d) The maximum accumulation of sick leave is 30 days.

e) Sick leave should not be clubbed with any other leave.

3. EARNED LEAVE

a) Every employee who has worked for a period of 20 days or more shall be allowed one day as earned leave.

b) Earned leave will be sanctioned only on a continuous basis; holidays if any in between will be exempted.

c) Earned leave cannot be availed more than 3 times in a calendar year.

d) Earned leave may be accumulated up to 60 days. Leave up to a maximum of 30 days will be encashed at the discretion of the management.

NOTE: AVAILING LEAVE IS NOT A MATTER OF RIGHT. THE MANAGEMENT CAN THUS REFUSE TO GRANT LEAVE TO AN EMPLOYEE DUE TO EXIGENCIES OF WORK. THE CASUAL LEAVE SHOULD GET SANCTIONED 2 TO 3 DAYS BEFORE AVAILING FROM THE DEPT. HEAD, AND THE EARNED LEAVE AS PER THE FACTORIES ACT.

Hope the information may be helpful to you.

Regards,

PBS KUMAR

Dear Mr. Kumar,

Thank you for your explanation regarding leave. I hope I will receive the same response for my other doubts as well. I am looking forward to building a long-lasting relationship by sharing our views and knowledge.

Once again, thank you.

Sekhar

Dear All,

As per the Shops and Establishments Act, how many leaves does the employer have to allow for the employee? Specifically:
- CL - how many days?
- SL - how many days?
- EL - how many days?

Regards,
James

Hi, Chandershekhar,

Your boss is right in stating that the practice is followed in most organizations.

Ritu Chaudhry