Aim: This policy shall be called the Leave Policy for Pharma professionals and any private employee.
Objective: The objective of this policy is to explain various types of leaving and the employee is entitled to the procedure to avail of this leave.
The policy is applicable to all permanent employees and private employees across all locations.
Type Of Leave Policy
- Earned Leave
- Casual Leave
- Sick Leave
- Maternity Leave
- Short Leave
- Special Leave
1. EARNED LEAVE (EL)
1.1 Entitlement Leave Policy
- An employee is entitled to one (1) day of leave for every 20 days of work performed by him/her during the previous calendar year. For field staff (other than managers) an employee is entitled to one (1) day of leave for every 11 days of work performed by him during the previous calendar year as per the provisions of the Sales Promotion Act.
- Every employee will get a credit of EL to his individual account on the 1st of January of each year for the previous calendar year.
- Employee shall be entitled to avail EL only on completion of one year of service up to the balance credit in the individual account as of 1st January.
- Application for availing of EL has to be made at least 15 days in advance. In exceptional circumstances, the management may, on merits, consider applications made at shorter notice or as the case may be. Earned leave will not be granted/availed for less than 3 days at a time and not more than three (3) occasions in a calendar year.
- In normal circumstances, EL will be allowed for a maximum of three times during the calendar period. However, the management, on merits, considers applications made after three times during the calendar year. In such a case, joint approval of the department & HR Head will be required.
1.2 Accumulation Leave Policy
- Earned leave subject to a maximum of 30 days may be accumulated and carried forward to a succeeding year. Earned leave beyond 30 days may be encashed.
1.3 Leave Encashment
- The basis of payment of one day EL shall be 1/26th of Basic + HRA + Special Allowance + Education Allowance + Transport Allowance for employees other than field staff.
- For field staff (other than managers), the basis of payment of one day EL shall be 1/30th of Basic + HRA + Special Allowance + Education Allowance + Transport Allowance, as per the provisions of the Sales Promotion Act.
- On separation from the service of the Company, proportionate EL shall be calculated up to the date of separation & will be credited to the employee account, after adjustment of any type of leave, which has been availed by the employee during the calendar year & notice period
- if specifically approved by the management, the balance will be encashed along with the Full and final settlement of the employee.
2. CASUAL LEAVE (CL)
- As per Leave Policy, Every employee will get a credit of CL in advance for the full current calendar year to his individual account on 1st January each year and in case of new joiners on the date of joining.
- CL shall be 8 days for the full calendar year, which shall be proportionately reduced to the nearest number of days in case of new joiners during the calendar year.
- CL shall be 15 days for field staff (other than managers) as per the provisions of the Sales Promotion Act.
- CL will be granted as required, subject to a maximum of three days at a time. However, it can be availed for a period of half (1/2) a day.
- Although CL is credited at the beginning of the leave year, discretion will be used by the management to grant the same in a controlled manner.
- CL will not be combined with any other leave.
- No accumulation or encashment will be allowed In case any employee leaves the organization due to any reason whatsoever, CL will be calculated on a pro-rata basis and the amount of any availed CL will be recovered from the employee at the time of settlement of his account.
3. SICK LEAVE (SL)
- Every employee other than employees who are covered under the provision of the ESIC Act will get a credit of SL in advance for the full current calendar year to his individual account on 1st January each year and in case of new joiners on the date of joining.
- Leave Policy for SL shall be 7 days for the full calendar year, which shall be proportionately reduced to the nearest number of days in case of new joiners during the calendar year.
- SL shall be 10 days for field staff (other than managers) as per the provisions of the Sales Promotion Act. SL for more than three (3) days has to be authenticated with a medical certificate from a registered medical practitioner.
- In case any employee leaves the organization due to any reason whatsoever, SL will be calculated on a pro-rata basis, and the amount of any availed SL will be recovered from the employee at the time of settlement of his account.
- Accumulation of SL will be allowed for up to 90 days but will not be encashed under any circumstances.
4. MATERNITY LEAVE (ML)
- Maternity Leave up to 90 days on a need basis shall be granted to only those female employees who are not covered under ESI.
- All other rules of ML shall be applicable as provided in the Maternity Benefits Act 1961 as amended from time to time.
5. SHORT LEAVE
(This clause will not be applicable to locations where “Leave Policy on Saturday Off ” is applicable)
- All employees may take two short leave in a month, with prior approval of the Head of the Department.
- The duration of each short leave is a maximum of two (2) hours. Such a short leave shall be availed either between 09:30 a.m. –11:30 a.m. or from 04:00 p.m. – 06:00 p.m. (depending on the office timings of the location, in the beginning, or at the end of the office hours).
- Short leave cannot be carried forward.
- Short leaves cannot be clubbed with half-day or two short leaves in one day cannot be availed.
6. SPECIAL LEAVE
In case of major operations/surgery, wherein an employee has exhausted his earned leave / sick leave / casual leave, he/she may be granted special leave up to a maximum of three (3) months as per the Leave Policy. For this, the recommendation may be sent to the Head – of Human Resources for consideration and sanction of special leave. Leave shall be granted at the discretion of the management, which cannot be claimed as a matter of right.
7. Advance Earned Leave Policy
- In case of contingencies like illness (self or dependents), accident (self), marriage (only in case of self), or worst circumstances like a death in the family, an employee may be granted Advance Earned Leave for a maximum period of 15 days.
- In the event of separation from the services of the Company, advance earned leave granted shall be recovered from his Full and final settlement dues.
- Prior sanction of advance earned leave is at the sole discretion of the management.
8. General Leave Policy
- The sanction of leave is always subject to the requirement of work and at the management’s discretion.
- When an employee is out of station during the leave period, the employee should leave his contact address & phone number with the human resources department/head of the department.
- Except in cases of extreme emergency, no leave can be availed without prior sanction.
- In case of emergency departure, the Company must receive written communication within three days. After the period of sanctioned leave, the continued absence of the employee will be deemed as major misconduct and will be liable for disciplinary action.
- An employee who does not work for at least three (3) days (excluding paid leave/holidays) of his / her weekly off due in that week will be treated as unpaid and a reduction in basic pay and all other allowances will be made accordingly.
- All the leaves (where the proportionate calculation is required) shall be rounded off to the nearest number.
- Any holiday & weekly off falling in between during any type of leave (including loss of pay) except in the case of CL & SL shall be added to the leave availed by the employee.
- An employee who desires to avail leave shall apply in writing to the concerned authority and may proceed only after the leave has been sanctioned. In case the employee proceeds without the sanction of leave under exigency/emergency, in case of an accident or death in the family, he/she must submit a leave application within three days after resuming the duty. However, information is necessary before proceeding on the leave.
- Leave of all kinds cannot be claimed as a right. When the exigencies of the business so require, discretion to refuse or revoke leave of any kind is reserved to the authority granting it and an employee already on leave may be recalled by that authority when he considers it necessary in the interest of the Company. When an employee is called back from leave, the Company shall pay the normal traveling expenses based on actuals as per the eligibility of the employee.
- An employee who overstays his leave (except under circumstances beyond his control for which he must tender a satisfactory explanation) shall not be paid his pay and allowances for the period he overstays and shall further render himself liable to such disciplinary action as the management may deem fit.
- Casual leave cannot be either pre-fixed or suffixed to Earned Leave / Sick Leave by virtue of any intervening day(s) of weekly off or holiday.
Power to Amend
The management in its own direction may make changes in this Leave Policy as it deems fit from time to time.
Note: Leave Policy may be different from the above policies. It may be a matter of changes from company to company.