Policy On Weekly Off During Tours And Travel

Hi,
I have a case in my company, there is a person who remain on official tour for first 15 days of the every month (within the country). Hence, 2 of his weekoffs (sunday) exhausts during the tour every month. though, he do not work on sunday and lies in company provided hotel for the whole day. in this case, he claims to get these weekoffs compensated with complementary off in rest of the 15 days of the month. I need to know, if a person is on official tour and not working on such week off, then is there any clause mentioned in any article that such days will be considered as overtime? Is he really liable to get these comp offs. If anybody has any information regarding this, Kindly share here. Also if there is any such clause mentioned in any article, please share here.

Dear Shweta,

More than policy, these things depend on level of the person, his motivation to work extra etc. It appears that the person in question is of managerial level. Had he been AGM or GM, then I don't think he would have claimed compensatory off.

In your case what the gentleman is claiming compensatory off because "he was away from family" or rather "unavailable at duty station". Nevertheless, compensatory offs are given when a person works on Sundays or Closed Holidays. Therefore, you may make the following rules for the compensatory off while on official tour:

a) If the employee works for more than eight hours during Sundays and Closed Holidays then he/she is eligible for a compensatory off.

b) If the employee works up to six hours during Sundays and Closed Holidays then he/she is eligible for a half day compensatory off.

c) if the employee was away on tour on but does not work on Sundays and Closed Holidays, then he is not eligible to get any off.

Compensatory off is always tricky. We cannot have some dotted policy. Both the sides need to be flexible. What about time spent in travel on Sunday and Closed Holiday? What about overnight travel? Large number of professionals travel overnight and attend sales call or conferences during the day. How to design the policy in such a case? In such cases Directors or VPs may be flexible and give them off when their subordinates need most i.e. visit to school, attending family member during sickness etc. This off is on and above regular leave.

Thanks,

Dinesh Divekar

In accordance with the policy, public servants are not entitled for any compensatory off in the given situation. Furthermore, Gazetted Officers are not entitled for any compensatory off, having worked on holidays or saturdays or sunday..