Managing Sick/Medical Leave Policies and Compliance in an IT Company

Dear All,

We are a 5-day working IT company. Our existing leave policy is 1 leave per month, i.e., 12 leaves in a calendar year. We are considering creating a separate "Medical Leave." Could you please help me understand how many minimum medical leaves are applicable for that? What will be the criteria to avail this?

Since this is a small company that fully depends on timely delivery, sometimes employees get sick or have accidents and are absent for 5 days to 2 months.

Dear Mamta,

You can give Medical Leave Extra as well; that is all management's call. Yes, when extra leave is entitled, employees are keen to avail most, if not all of them in a calendar year. Moreover, leave on medical grounds can't be predicted, so you can't require them to inform in advance or seek prior approval.

There could be two scenarios: if you don't want to take on extra financial burden, you can bifurcate the existing 12 leaves into 5 (Casual) and 7 (Medical). However, if you wish to provide separate leave, due to 'timely delivery,' you may not be able to allow or afford all or most of them at a certain point.

You can draft a Holiday, Leave, and Rest (Weekly off) Policy. I would first suggest allowing weekly offs on a rotation basis (for which you need to determine the minimum number of employees required daily, considering their duties for 6 days a week, and calculating the total man-days required, etc.). Once you have the required numbers, you can include the following points in your policy:-

In case any Holiday falls on a Weekly off, no Compensatory Holiday will be allowed.

No Holiday will be allowed between continuous Leaves. The individual must be available either before or after the Holiday; otherwise, the same will be counted as Leave/Absence.

Norms for taking Casual-Sick Leave:

1. Maximum 2 Casual Leaves can be availed in a single instance; beyond 2 regular CLs, PLs, if any, will be adjusted. If no PL is available in balance, the same will be deducted.

2. Maximum 3 Sick Leaves can be availed in a single instance, after which a Medical Certificate must be provided to the HOD.

3. In a single instance, either Casual Leave or Sick Leave can be availed; beyond the maximum limit, PLs, if any, will be adjusted.

4. No Weekly Off-Holiday will be allowed between continuous Leaves. The individual must be available either before or after the Weekly Off-Holiday; else the same will be counted as Leave/Absence.

5. All leaves should be pre-approved by the supervisor/Shift Incharge and finally approved by the HOD.

6. Repetition of Leave around the Holidays and Weekly Offs is allowed only with prior approval from the HOD.

III Weekly Off Policy

Norms for Weekly Off Policy:

1. In general, the Weekly Off is allowed only after performing 6 days of duties.

2. In case any Weekly Off falls on a Holiday, no Compensatory Weekly Off will be allowed.

3. No Weekly Off will be allowed during consecutive Leave/Absence/Holidays.

4. For availing the Weekly Off, the individual must be present either before or after the Weekly Off; otherwise, it will be considered as Absence/PL.

Hope you find the above as per your requirements. You can make modifications as per your management decisions and company policies.

Thank you, sir, for your valuable input.

As per Maharashtra's shop and establishment rules, some are saying that we must follow the rules. We can't say that it's the company's wish.

Kindly clarify. "Are 21 leaves compulsory to give, excluding 12 holidays and weekends?" If yes, then we are only providing 1 leave per month, i.e., 12 leaves.

The holidays and leaves under these statutes can be categorized as follows:-

National Holidays: These holidays are declared compulsorily, and the establishments do not have flexibility in timing them: 26th January, 1st May, 15th August, 2nd October, and 1st November.

Festival Holidays: Though the festival holidays are compulsory, the establishment has the flexibility to choose from a list of about 50 festivals available in the Schedule to The Karnataka Industrial Establishments (National and Festival Holidays) Act, 1963. Five festival holidays in each calendar year have to be declared in addition to the National Holidays.

General Elections: In case of general elections to the Lok Sabha and Vidhana Sabha and in case of any by-election, a holiday needs to be declared for all employees on polling day.

Weekly Holidays: Every establishment is required to remain closed for at least one day of the week. The employer shall fix such date at the beginning of the year. (Here we are giving Saturday and Sunday off).

Information Technology Establishments, Information Technology-enabling services or establishments, and Bio-Technology and Research Centres, in addition to certain other establishments, are exempt from the provisions of Weekly Holidays.

Annual leave with wages: Every employee in an establishment is entitled to leave with wages, calculated as follows:-

Earned Leave: One day for every twenty days worked performed by him, in the case of an adult. This works out to about 1.5 days a month and 18 days per annum.

Contingency/Sick/Medical Leave: Every employee is also entitled to leave with wages for a period not exceeding twelve days, on the grounds of any sickness incurred or accident sustained by him or for any other reasonable cause.

Carry forward of Leave balances: If an employee does not in any one calendar year take the whole of the leave allowed to him as above, any leave not taken by him shall be added to the leave to be allowed to him in the succeeding calendar year. (We don't carry forward and encash).

The total number of days of leave that may be carried forward to a succeeding year should not exceed thirty days. The excess leave will either expire or will have to be paid to the Employee as Leave Encashment.

Other leaves include Maternity leave, ESI leave, etc. The national, Festival, and Weekly holidays declared by the establishment need to be prominently displayed at the place of business and should be intimated to the Labour Department every calendar year. (Not yet worked on it)