Forced PL - owner of the company wants employees to take PLs to ensure work life balance

Hi,

My office is governed by the Delhi Shop and Establishment Act. The owner of the company wants employees to take PLs to ensure work-life balance. He wants the office to be closed for a certain period of time once a year, for instance for a week. Now the question is, will that period in which the office will be closed be deducted from employees' PL balance? Can an organization force an employee to take leave, or will it be considered as holidays with no PL deduction?

Work-life balance is a good concept, and employees must avail earned leave to spend time with family and friends. In my opinion, employers cannot force employees to take leave.

R R Kapoor

The employer has the discretion to regulate when the employee seeks to avail of leave. However, he/she cannot dictate when and how the employee should avail of the leave, nor can he/she arbitrarily close the establishment and adjust the period of leave availed. Such actions would be tantamount to taking the law into their own hands.

Dear colleague,

If it is a part of service condition and meant to achieve work-life balance, the organization can schedule compulsory leave for all to avail at the same period. It is a pro-employee intervention, and I do not see anything wrong in it. The only thing is, such leave can be over and above an employee may want to avail of at some other period in the year.

Regards,
Vinayak Nagarkar
HR Consultant

Hi S' Badola,

Though the concept looks appropriate, it can't be judged based on the consequences. If the office is closed, it's generally taken as a 'paid holiday'. Since there is no tag attached like 'lay off', lockout, shutdown due to lack of orders or raw material, etc., the event can be considered as a 'paid holiday', which we can neither affirm nor deny without knowing the ground realities. Whether these 'closed' days will be debited to employees' PL account, I think you should clarify this with the owner directly and act accordingly.

Except for 'health' issues, no employer can force an employee to take 'leave'. Moreover, we have no information about the nature of your duties. Is it so stressful or polluted that it warrants the compulsory shutdown of the unit itself?

Is this the first time such a closure has been implemented? What do the other employees say or how do they react to this? I believe if there is no salary cut, you and your colleagues can accept it gladly.