In this post, we will look deep into the different types of leave in the company provided to an employee for the benefit of the company.
The topics we will cover in this post are:
Introduction
Any employee in government, non-government / private sector is entitled to get a certain number of leaves during their employment period. This will help them maintain a proper work-life balance.
So, by improving the work-life balance for both employers and employees helps to ensure their health and happiness. It also helps to build a productive business.
The various types of leaves for employees in India are:
- Paid leave
- Unpaid leave
Paid leave is given at the request of the employer, or due to some statutory requirement. This includes employee injury on the job, funeral, jury duty, or if the employer is performing repairs / other activities in the building where the employee normally works.
Unpaid leave is given at the request of the employee or due to some misconduct from the employee. It can be for some employee-requested reasons, like active duty call-ups for reserve military personnel, or to attend health checkups/appointments of the employee/family member.
Leaves in a company can also be divided into 3 main categories and they are:
- Mandatory leaves
- Leaves
- Non-leaves
Mandatory leave
Holidays are paid leaves for an employee where no deductions are made from the salary.
- National Holidays: The fixed national holidays in India are on the 26th of January, 15th of August, and 2nd of October.
- Weekly Holidays: Depending upon the organizational policy there are either 1 or 2 weekly holidays at the end of the week for all the employees.
- Religious/Regional festivals: You can also include festivals as holidays in India. There are a few festivals like Christmas but the exact dates of some festivals subject to change every year. A company can devise its own policy regarding how many festivals it will give a paid leave for every year. Employer and Employees have the right to choose their festivals.
Leaves in a company
Earned Leave / Privilege Leave
The employees earn leave when they work in an organisation for a specified number of days. The leaves get sanctioned without any salary deductions. But it needs prior approval from the employer (except in emergency cases). The employees can accumulate/ encash leave but the number of leaves is based on industry and region.
Casual Leave
This leaves are for short durations and take with prior information to the employer (except when you can’t inform the employer). The rules are different for different companies as the number of casual leaves taken at a stretch varying between 3 to 7 days.
The official holidays not included while calculating casual leaves if they are in the period of casual leave. You can neither encash it nor carry it forward. So, to reduce absenteeism, you can convert balance CLto PL in the leave account at the end of the year.
Sick Leave / Medical Leave
An employee can take this if he is sick and can not come to the office. An employee can take sick leave only after a certain period of employment. The number of sick leaves provided is according to the company policy. You can only avail it without any prior information. Although you need a medical certificate from a doctor if it extends for a long period.
Maternity Leave
This is available for women employees who are in pregnancy period. The paid maternity leave is for 12-26 weeks and it can be extended with 16 months of unpaid leave. No deductions are made from their leave account. An employee can take this leave in case of miscarriage or abortion but it will have a smaller limit.
Half Pay Leave
Half Pay Leave is credited to the leave account only after completing one year of service in the organization. This 20-day HPL is mainly for government servants and they will get half of a day’s salary during this leave.
Quarantine Leave
This leave is given to an employee only if there is an infectious disease in the family/household and hazardous to the health of people in the organization.
Study Leave / Sabbatical Leave
An employee can get a study leave to update his knowledge and experience to improve his contribution to the organisation after rejoining. The employee can take a maximum of 3 years after completing at least 5 years of service.
Leave without pay/ Loss of pay
When the employee has no leave balance and needs leave, the Company can give Leave without pay. So, it can be adjusted against the future leave/ special paid leave based his/her contribution.
Non-leaves in a company
Compensatory off
If the employee does work during the holidays it is normally compensated as leave or it encashable. The employee can take a day off on any working day of the same month. For compensatory off, every organization has a different policy for its employees.
In the private sector, they can not take compensatory off to next month if not used it in the same month. The employees will then lose their opportunity and no extra amount will be paid. Some companies carry forward compensatory off and use it when they want it.
Work from home
The Work from home concept helps employees to do his /her job within the comfort of one’s home. It provides flexible working hours to the employee and eases work pressure. Thus indirectly helps to maintain the work-life balance to the employee.
Work from home also helps to increase the productivity of the company. This eco-friendly option cuts down the cost of office infrastructure like spaces, electricity bills etc. for the company. Most employers are now offering Work from home option to their employees.
Field work
Field studies is a qualitative method most company market researchers use as it gives a better clarity on what customer needs and wants. This method is very effective when you use them for redesigning a product/ launching a new product.
Many companies send a certain number of employees on field work to know and analyse the customer’s thinking pattern. The company does not mark its field employee on leave during the fieldwork as they are working outside the office space.
With that, we have come to an end of this post on different types of leave in the company. Share your views and opinion with us in the comments section below.
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