Working Hours, Leave policies and Holidays in indian Companies

Working hours, Leave policies and Holidays are generally regulated by the nature of business, project deadlines, HR Policy and place where the company cater services.

These statutes categorises the leaves and Holidays as follows:

National Holidays: national holidays are declared compulsorily and the companies do not have flexibility in timing them.

Festival Holidays: companies have the flexibility to choose from a list of about 50 festivals available in the Schedule to The Karnataka Industrial, Establishments (National and Festival Holidays) Act, 1963. Five festival holidays in each calendar year have to be declared in addition to the National Holidays.

General Elections: In case of general elections to the Lok Sabha and Vidhana Sabha and in case of any by election, a holiday needs to be declared to all employees on polling day.

Weekly Holidays: An establismet/company required to remain closed for atleast one day of the week.

Information Technology Establishments; Information Technology enabling services or establishments; & Bio-Technology and Research Centres in addition to certain other establishments are exempt from the provisions of Weekly Holidays.

Working hours: According to sec.54 of Factorise Act, 1948 an adult worker is not required to work more than 9 hour and sec.51 prohibits working for more than 48 hours a week.

Working during night: Sec.66 Factories Act,1948, prohibits working women from 7PM to 6 AM. However the State Government may, by notification exempt any establishment subject to the condition that the establishment provides facilities of transportation and security to such women employees.

Sec.25 of the The Karnataka Shops & Commercial Establishments Act, 1961, prohibits working of women during night in shops and firms. However an IT/ITES/BPO companies can seek exemption under the provision

Leave Eligibility:

• All regular, full- time employees at Fair Isaac are eligible for Earned Leave.

• Earned Leave is calculated on a month on month basis for the calendar year (January –
  December)
• If you have joined during the middle of the year, your earned leave will be pro-rated from
  the date you start employment through December 31 of that calendar year.
  Entitlement

Types of Leave:

1. Earned Leave (EL)
2. Casual Leave (CL)
3. Sick Leave (SL)
4. Maternity Leave (ML)

5. Paternity Leave (PL)

6. Personal Leave of Absence

7. Breavement Leave

8. Paid Holidays (Public Holidays)

Earned Leave (EL):

• Every month Earned Leave accrues at 13.33 hours per month (equivalent to 1.66 days per month or 160 hours of vacation per calendar year). 
  
  
• During the probation period of 3 months , you are not entitled to take Earned Leave You may avail your Earned leaves only after completing your probation period, at which point you will have accrued 40 (13.33 hours X 3) hours or 5 days.
  
  
• If you are a Management Trainee, your probation period is 1 year. However you may avail your Earned leaves after completing 3 months of service with the organization, at which point you will have accrued 40 (13.33 hours X 3) hours or 5 days.
  
  
• Earned Leave is exclusive of official and weekly holidays. Hence if an employee takes leave during which time a declared holiday or weekend occurs, then those particular date(s) will not be counted as your Earned Leave.
  
• Earned leave can be clubbed with Casual Leave. 
  
  
• Balance earned leaves cannot be adjusted against the notice period during termination of services.

Casual Leave (CL):

• As per the rules under The Shops and Establishment Act, you are entitled to 6 days of Casual Leave to attend to personal matters and not for vacation. 
  
  
• Casual Leave shall be credited to the employees account at the beginning of the calendar year. New employees are eligible to use Casual Leave immediately upon hire.
  
  
• Casual leave cannot be clubbed more than 3 at a time. 
  
  
• Casual Leave can be clubbed with Earned Leave. 
  
  
• There is no accumulation or carry forward of Casual Leave.
  Encashment 
  
  
• Casual leave cannot be encashed or adjusted against notice pay at the time of separation.

Process

• An employee can request for Casual Leave to attend to personal matters. These would be granted at the discretion of the Supervisor.

• The employee is required to apply for Casual Leave in advance, unless in case of exigencies where he/she shall submit the leave approval request to the Supervisor within 48 hours of resuming duty.
  
  
• Casual leave must be recorded accurately in the time sheet as “Time off with pay”.

Sick Leave (SL):

• An employee is entitled to 7 days of Sick Leave which shall be credited to the employees account at the beginning of the calendar year. New employees are eligible to use Sick Leave immediately upon hire.
  
  
• If you have joined in the middle of the year, your Sick leave entitlement will not be pro-rated. The entire Sick Leave of 7 days is granted upon hire. 
  
  
• Sick Leave cannot be clubbed with Earned Leave or Casual Leave. 
  
  
• Sick leave is inclusive of weekly holidays. 
  
  
• There is no accumulation or carry forward of Sick Leave. 
  
  
• Sick leave cannot be encashed or adjusted against notice pay at the time of separation.

Process:

• Sick leave is to be taken in cases of injury / illness to the employee. An employee must intimate his/her manager either over the phone or on returning from leave.
• 2 or more days of Sick Leave will require a medical certificate from a qualified and registered medical practitioner .Notwithstanding such certificate, the company can in its sole discretion ask the employee to present himself / herself before the company appointed doctor for medical examination and in such situation the employee shall be eligible for paid sick leave only upon the company appointed doctor certifying the same.
  

• Exceptional cases of injury / illness of a serious nature will be viewed on a case to case basis. These however need to be communicated in writing, for getting the necessary approval from the Supervisor. Clubbing of sick leaves with the other leaves in such cases will be at the discretion of the Manager in consultation with HR.
  
• Sick leave must be recorded accurately in the time sheet as “Sick”

Maternity Leave (ML) :

 Eligibility

• Maternity leave is a statutory leave .All women employees will be entitled to maternity benefits as per the provisions of the Maternity Benefit Act, 1961 and the prevailing State rules. 
  
  
• Married and expecting women employees are eligible to avail maternity leave.
• Women employees who have completed a minimum of 80 days of continuous service with the company are eligible for maternity leave.
• If you are on probation, you are entitled to avail maternity leave, provided the above condition is fulfilled.

Entitlement:
• Maternity leave is restricted to two live births during the service with the company
• Women employees who have worked for a minimum period of 80 days in the twelve
• months prior to the delivery shall be entitled to Maternity Leave of up to
  - 12 weeks in case of delivery
  - 6 weeks in case of miscarriage, from the date of miscarriage
• Under the Act, women employees are eligible for a maximum period of 12 weeks as Maternity Leave and this leave shall not be extended beyond a period of 1 month, without a certificate from a Qualified Medical Practitioner and approval of the HR Personnel.
  
  
• All leave/s beyond the statutory limit of 12 weeks will be charged to Earned Leave. 
  
  
• Maternity Leave may be clubbed with Sick Leave.

Process :

• The employee should give at least one month's notice prior to the date of commencement of leave.
• Maternity leave must be recorded accurately in the Oracle time sheet as “Leave of Absence”
• If you are proceeding on leave beyond the stipulated time, you need to get special approval.

Paternity Leave(PL):

• Paternity Leave is designed to help the male employee take time off from work during the prenatal/ postnatal stage of his child.
  
  
• All permanent male employees shall be entitled to Paternity Leave up to 7 working days. 
  
  
• No credit/accumulation/encasement of this leave is permissible.
  
  
• The male employee shall submit the application at least one month in advance, along with a certificate from the doctor specifying the expected date of delivery, to his Supervisor with a copy to the HR Department.
  
  
• Paternity Leave must be accurately recorded in the Oracle Time sheet as “Leave of Absence”
  

Personal Leave of Absence:

• A personal leave of absence is an unpaid, Fair Isaac-authorized period of absence from the job for up to six months. 
  
  
• Fair Isaac may allow a personal leave of absence for unique or extraordinary reasons that do not fit within the other types of leave offered. 
  
  
• After one year of continuous employment, all Fair Isaac full-time employees are eligible to file a request for a personal leave of absence. Any employee requesting a personal leave of absence must file a written request with his or her Supervisor.
  
  
• A personal leave of absence is granted at the sole discretion of the organization and Fair Isaac reserves the right to refuse requests for personal leave. The decision to grant a personal leave will be based on the business needs of Fair Isaac, the person's tenure with Fair Isaac, the person's recent performance/contributions, and the reason for the requested leave.
  
  
• A leave of absence willNOT be granted to allow an employee time off to start his/her own business, seek employment elsewhere, or to work for another employer (a possible exception is for part-time, voluntary, honorary work for an entity/body organized as a non-profit).
  
• For more information about the process for requesting a leave of absence and the effects of the leave on your benefits and options, please speak to the HR team at Fair Isaac (India).

Bereavement Leave :

It is Fair Isaac’s policy to grant paid time off from work to employees for the death of a relative. Employees are eligible for up to 7 days leave, if necessary, in the event of the death of an immediate family member (defined as parents, grandparents, siblings, spouse, children and in-laws). Fair Isaac requests that you notify your Supervisor/ HR team, as early as possible, of an intention to take bereavement leave.