By Ghanavi Umesh
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An
employee cannot be expected to work 365 days a year. Allowing employees to take
leave from work and being sensitive to their problems is hence important not
only for the benefit of the employees but also making the workplace more
efficient.
In India, the law allows for leave primarily under three heads: Privileged leave or Earned leave, Casual Leave and Sick Leave. The Shops and Establishments Acts provide for these leave entitlements. It is to be noted that this is not a central statute and as a result different states in India have different number of days under each head. However, it is mandatory that leave under all three heads are provided in each state.
The
Shops and Establishments Acts define a commercial establishment as a place where
there is a trade or business or any work related to any society, charitable
organization, journalistic organizations, quarries, mines, contractors or
auditor organizations or where occurs an activity of banking, brokerage,
insurance, trade or private educational institutions. An employee working in
any of the above establishments is entitled to privileged leave, casual leave
and sick leave.
Privileged Leave
This
leave is something that an employee earns as a result of his service in his
organization. For example, if an employee has worked in a company for two
years, he or she might be entitled to 15 days of leave additional to the casual
and the sick leave. This is known as privileged leave, which is also known as
earned leave.
Casual Leave
This leave
can be availed by employees for meeting their personal emergencies for either
full day or half day.
Sickness Leave
This
leave can be availed by employees for medical reasons as the name suggests. The
difference between casual leave and sickness leave is that the former cannot be
carried forward whereas the latter can be.
Parental Leave
The
Maternity Benefits (Amendment) Act, 2017 increased the previous maternity leave
provisions for women from 12 weeks to 26 weeks. Women can now avail maternity
leave not more than 2 weeks before the delivery date and the rest of the 26
weeks after the birth of the child. It also provides that such women be
protected from dismissal during their leave period and be provided crèche
facility (in workplaces with at least 50 employees) and frequent breaks to
attend to the child once they get back to work along with an option to work
from home after the 26 week period.
While
Paternity leave benefits are provided under the law in most countries, it is
not legally available in India. Nevertheless, quite a number of organizations
in India do provide for paternity leave benefits to new fathers. This makes
sure the women are not completely burdened with raising the child in its first
few months. The Andhra Pradesh State Government allows for 15 days paternity
leave within 6 months of the birth of the child.
In all
of the above categories of leave entitlements, the employees are entitled to
their payment during the period of their leave. In some case, half payment is
done on the days of sickness leaves.
Extraordinary Leave
This
leave is granted to regularise unexplained absence of the employee from work
and this leave does not require the employer to pay the wages for the leave
period. An employee usually takes this leave when he requires a break and takes
time off duty.
Study/Sabbatical Leave
This
leave is usually granted to employees who have completed a certain number of
years in service to undergo in India or abroad for higher studies related to
his or her sphere of duty. The employer may make complete or partial payment
during the period of study leave.
Quarantine Leave
This
has especially gained significance in the current COVID-19 situation. The
employer may grant up to 30 days leave if an employee contracts an infectious
disease to prevent the spread of the disease to other employees in their
workplace if the disease is particularly dangerous.
Leave for Election
The
employer must allow an employee to take one day’s leave on the polling day of
any General Election or Bye-election to enable him to exercise his
constitutional right of voting.
In
addition to these, all organizations irrespective of whether they are private
or public firms, including MNCs are mandatorily required to remain closed on
the national holidays i.e. Republic Day (26th February),
Independence Day (15th August) and Gandhi Jayanti (2nd
October).
The
Weekly Holidays Act of 1942 provides that all shops and commercial
establishments must be closed for one day a week and the employees must be
given leave on this day without any deduction or abatement of wages for that
day. Such establishments might be required to close for an additional half a
day depending on the notification by the state in which they are present.
While
the above categories of leave entitlements are those that are guaranteed or
recognised by law, there are some categories of leave entitlements which
organizations choose to provide for their employees by being sensitive to the
needs and problems of their employees.
Bereavement Leave
This
leave allows an employee to avail up to 7 days of leave after the death of
their close relative (usually is limited to parents, siblings, spouses,
children and in-laws) but this varies with the policies adopted by the HR
departments of organizations.
Birthday Leave
Bharti
Airtel, for example, allows its employees half day leave on their birthdays.
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Ghanavi Umesh is a 2nd year student at National Law University Delhi. She has a keen interest in Constitutional law, Environmental law and Intellectual Property law. She is also interested in Economics and Philosophy. One can either find her reading something or bingeing on a TV show in her leisure time. She also loves painting occasionally.
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