Policies For Leave And Working Hours

Employees are most productive when they achieve work-life balance that enables them to meet their responsibilities outside work.

- Anshul Prakash, Abhimanyu Pal and Kruthi N Murthy

In order to ensure that they achieve work-life balance, the employment laws in India stipulate the working hours of an establishment, the categories of leave, the eligibility and duration of such leave. For optimum utilisation of resources and time, a policy in relation to the leave and working hours of the employee ("Policy") may be formulated by the employer. The Policy should set out the eligibility and requirements of working hours along with the form of leave available to the employees. The employment laws that govern the leave and working hours of the employees have been illustrated.

Governing Legislations with respect to Leave and Working Hours

The leave and working hours of employees employed in shops or commercial establishments are set out under the Shops and Establishments Act of the relevant state ("S&E Act"). Almost all the states in India have enacted their own S&E Acts which inter alia regulates the hours of work, interval for rest, opening and closing hours, holidays, overtime work, annual leave, sick leave, casual leave, accumulation of earned leaves, and, other conditions of employment. However, some states provide an exemption in relation to working hours, to the establishments engaged in the IT/ITeS sector. Further, in states such as Maharashtra, managerial employees working in an establishment are exempt from the applicability of the S&E Act. In Delhi, the managerial employees are exempted from the provisions of working hours under the S&E Act. Therefore, the employer may contractually agree to the number of leaves or working hours of the managerial employees in states which provide exemptions under the S&E Act.