Removing grace time to report on duty - How can we get that facility back?

Respected Sir/Madam,

Please guide me. Our organization first gave us 10 minutes of grace time to report for duty, but now it has been removed and issued as a type of circular. Is that why there are some rules? How can we get that facility back?

Dear Ramesh,

The grace period is an extended period granted as a special favor. An employee may start from home at a fixed time, but sometimes, contingencies may arise because of traffic bottlenecks or something else. To provide cover for such a one-off event, a grace period is given.

While reporting for the duties, whether to grant this special favor or not is the employer's prerogative. If the employer withdraws it, then the employees cannot question it.

Unfortunately, some employees misuse the facility of grace time perennially. If you check the employees' punching records, then you might observe that a few employees avail of the facility of the grace time with the utmost regularity. Suppose on average, the employee reports late for duties by five minutes. But if he/she does it 120 times, the total late-coming works out to 600 minutes. That is as good as one man-day. Is this not the organization's big loss? This calculation is just for one employee. If the loss is calculated for all the employees, then the cumulative loss could be far greater.

Thanks,

Dinesh Divekar

Dear Mr. Rameshday,

You can regain the functionality by advancing your watch by 10 minutes.

One thing I cannot understand is why we have a habit of reporting to the job at the exact start time of the shift. Why do we cultivate a sense of urgency all the time? We should plan our day accordingly.

Dear Ramesh,

Are you asking this question from a legal point of view or as options available otherwise? It is the employer's right to withdraw any grace period that he thinks is no longer desirable. You can, however, appeal to him to restore it, and then it is up to how they look at the violation and why it was withdrawn in the first place.

If you are asking for legal remedy, the withdrawal (if documented earlier as a part of your HR Policy, terms of employment, or standing orders) amounts to a change of terms of service, and the procedure specified in the Industrial Dispute Act needs to be followed. However, such a move will ultimately be approved, just that the employer has to follow some process, give notice, and ultimately, after some time elapses, it becomes the new procedure. It is unlikely that you will be able to keep it through enforcement.