Leave/National & Festival Holidays Policy

1)    Objective:

           LEAVE/ NATIONAL & FESTIVAL HOLIDAYS are provided to the employees by the company to enable them to take rest/recover in case of illness/ meet personal emergencies and avail vacations to rejuvenate and to come back refreshed to work. . The Leave/Holidays provided by the Company support its employees in a way which promotes and sustains positive, productive and safe working environment and to generate sense of belonging ness. Leaves will always be requested.

2)    Scope and Eligibility:

a)      This policy is applicable to the all non-billable/support staff (like control room staff, Housekeeping and admin support staff) but does not include Non Billable Security Guards and contractual staff.

b)     All leave entitlements coincide with and are determined for the CALENDAR YEAR from 1^st January to 31^st December every year.

c)      Employees joining/leaving at any point during calendar year would get leave on pro rata basis.

d)     Individual employee leave records shall be maintained and monitored by the HR Department through Online leave management system PAYBOOKS and no leave can be granted /availed verbally/ through Email or individual leave application.

3)     This policy is divided into two parts:

a)      Leaves : 

i)        Sick Leave (SL)

ii)      Casual Leaves (CL)

iii)    Privileged Leaves (PL)

b)     National & Festive Holiday

c)      Leaves mentioned as above are applicable to the employees in Regional/Branches/Corporate offices.

d)     No encasement of Leaves is permissible.

4)    In a calendar year, an employee can avail leaves in the following manner:

a)      Casual Leave - 05

b)     Sick Leave - 05

c)      Privileged Leave - 18

d)     No PL is permissible during Probation Period.

5)    Casual Leave – CL:

a)      All the employees shall be entitled for 05 days Casual Leaves (CL) in a financial year.

b)     CL will be calculated on quarterly pro-rata basis and will be credited at the beginning of the quarter.

c)      CL will not be carried forward to the next calendar year and unavailed CL during the calendar year will lapse.

d)     CL cannot be clubbed with Earned leave.

e)      Maximum of 3 days CL can be availed in one spell.

f)       CL can be applied at any time but it should not be less than 0.5 day.

g)      All holidays/weekly offs falling in between a spell of CL shall be counted as leave (CL) and not as weekly off

h)     No encashment of CL is permissible.

i)        CL can be clubbed with SL

j)       CL should be applied online at least 24 hours in advance. However, in case of extreme circumstances when person is unable to apply for CL in advance, he may inform his superior via phone/SMS/Online and If not applied online earlier will do so immediately on resuming duties.

6)   Sick leave – SL:

a)      All employees shall be entitled to 05 days of SL in a year.

b)     SL will be calculated on quarterly pro-rata basis and will be credited at the beginning of the quarter.

c)      All holidays/weekly off days falling in between a spell of SL shall be counted as Sick leave and not as weekly off.

d)     No encashment of SL is permissible.

e)      Any employee falling sick shall send information to his superior via phone /SMS /online at the earliest but not later than 24 hours of his absence on account of SL. If not applied online earlier will do so immediately on resuming duty.

f)       In case of sickness for more than 3 days, concerned employee must produce a medical certificate either from a Doctor or from a Registered Medical Practitioner.

g)      SL can be clubbed with CL.

7)    Privileged leave – PL:

a)      All staff members shall be entitled to 19 days PL in a calendar year.

b)     PL would be credited to the individual employee’s account only after completion of probation period on pro-rata basis quarterly on PAYBOOKS   and can only be availed after completion of minimum  3 months or as per probation period as defined in concerned employee  letter of appointment.  Extension of probationary period does not apply for availing PL after six months.

c)      PL can be clubbed with SL on account of special circumstance like illness/death in the family, under the Extenuating Circumstances Policy. PL cannot be availed for more than 5 days at a stretch. All Holidays/weekly off days falling in between a spell of PL shall be counted as Privileged Leave and not as weekly off.

d)     No encashment or accumulations are permissible for PL.

e)      For availing PL, an employee would be required to apply online on PAYBOOKS at least seven days before the date on which employee wish to go on leave.

f)       In the event of leaving/terminations during the tenure of his/ her services, an amount equivalent to excess advance PL given to respective employees are to be deducted from his Full and Final.

8)    Procedures:

a)      To apply for  leave, an employee has to take proper approval of leave on PAYBOOKS

b)     An employee can avail PL/CL/SL as per the requirement 3.3   Leave applied by any employees does not get automatically sectioned and will only be allowed after approval from concerned superior as per above rules.

9)    General Rules :

a)      Leave not a Right 

No leave can be claimed as a matter of right and is granted after considering the exigencies of work by his Reporting Manager (Approving Authority). The approving authority has discretion to refuse or revoke leave at any time according to business exigencies.

b) Leave Without Pay -LWP 

i)LWP will be granted through the Extenuating Circumstances Policy.

ii)LWP should not be exceeded beyond 30 days.

iii)During such leave, the employee will not be entitled to any benefit, but merely retain a lien, on job.

iv)LWP can be allowed in case of long illness or education/higher study/ maternity leave etc when applied through Extenuating Circumstances Policy

V)Seeking leave without approval is considered to LWP

c)      Extension of Leave  

i)        After proceeding on leave, if an employee desires extension thereof he/she shall make an application for the purpose to the concerned Reporting Manager in writing before the expiry of the leave, giving sufficient time to the sanctioning authority to intimate him/her of such sanction.

ii)      A reply either granting or refusing extension of leave will be sent to the employee. This action should be done before the expiry of the leave originally granted. However, in the absence of any reply from the Management or the concerned authority, the employee shall take that his request for extension has been refused and that he/she must report on duty immediately on the expiry of leave originally granted. Failing which he/she will be deemed to be absent without permission rendering himself/herself liable for disciplinary action.

iii)    Without prejudice to the above and Management’s right as contained in these rules, the services of an employee may be, after due diligence, summarily terminated in case he/she remains unauthorized absent for 30 days or more.

iv)    In case an employee is absent for seven or more continuous days from his duties without any prior information, it will be presumed by the management that he is no longer interested in the company's employment and has left the services at his own accord and sweet will .His services may be discontinued by sending a notice in writing and he/ she may no longer be an employee of the company.

10)  National & Festival Holidays:

a)      As per the Policy, there are 12 Holidays in a calendar year. 

b)     Total 12 Festival Holidays shall be provided every year.

c)      National Holiday falling on Sundays shall be treated as National Holidays and not Weekly off.

d)     Festival Holidays would be decided Region wise as per their importance of festival which will be declared by HR department before the end of each year for following year with consent of concerned Regional Heads under intimation to Management.

 11)  Deviations Deviations can only be done via Extenuating Circumstances Policy.

12)  Note: Employees are not entitled for any leave (SL/CL/PL) during notice period.