Annual Leave

Around 13 legislation pertaining to working conditions, hours of work, annual leave, safety precautions, etc. are repealed and codified under the Occupational Safety Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020. It was implemented with the goal of ensuring a fundamental level of uniformity with regard to these factors. Parliament has approved the OSHWC Code, and the president has given his assent. Before being adopted, its draught Central rules are now being presented to the Standing Committee.

This article will look at the Code's yearly leave rules and evaluate their effects. It shall also examine the class of employees to whom these provisions apply and the reasons for the same.

Annual Leave

The above provision states that every worker employed in an establishment shall be entitled to leave with wages in every calendar year. The same is made subject to certain conditions, which are discussed in the following sub-points

Eligibility

The worker must have worked for 180 days or more in a calendar year

Rate and Leave Calculation

The ratio of leave entitlement is one day for every 20 days of employment; Teenage workers and underground mining employees are both entitled to one day off for every 15 days of work

For the purpose of determining the aforementioned 180 days, any layoffs, maternity leaves, or yearly leaves taken by a worker within a calendar year must be taken into account. A worker cannot, however, receive leave for the time period in question.

Prohibition of Sandwich Leave Policy

Holidays that fall between days of leave taken by a worker are not counted toward the total amount of leave taken. This prevents businesses from implementing sandwich leave programmes. Holidays that come between leaves taken by employees as part of their leave are covered under such policies.

Date of Joining

If a worker's employment doesn't begin on January 1st, they are still entitled to the above-mentioned rate of pay when they quit their position. This is contingent upon the employee having worked for a minimum of one-fourth of the calendar year's remaining days.

Right to Wages against Leaves

During a calendar year, a worker who is terminated from employment, leaves their position, retires, or passes away while still working is entitled to wages in place of the amount of leave to which they were previously entitled. Even if they haven't worked for the required number of days, this still applies to them. The following must be paid:

• The second working day following the date of discharge, dismissal, or resignation, but not later than
• When a worker retires or passes away while still employed, it must be before the two-month period has passed.

Carry Forward

Without affecting the provision under subsection (vi), a worker has the right to request the encashment of leave at the conclusion of a calendar year.

Worker has the right to cash in any unused leave when the overall amount of leave exceeds 30 days as per clause (vii).

According to the aforementioned clauses, employees are entitled to leave at a rate of one day for every twenty days worked as long as they work 180 or more days in a calendar year. Sandwich leave policies are not allowed, and a 30-day maximum can be carried over from one leave period to the next.

Applicability

Every employee employed by an establishment is covered by the provision in Section-32's opening clause, thus in order to understand how the annual leave requirements will be applied, it is necessary to look at the definitions of both workers and establishments.

Any person who is engaged in any establishment to perform manual, unskilled, skilled, technical, operational, clerical, or supervisory work for pay or reward is included in the definition of worker. It excludes people working in management or administrative positions, as well as those in supervisory roles earning more than Rs. 18,000.

The term "establishment" has a very broad definition and can refer to any location where ten or more people are employed in an industry, trade, business, manufacturing, or activity. It can also refer to factories, mines, ports, motor transport companies, etc.

As a result, practically all types of establishments are covered by the regulations relating to yearly leave. It is also safe to assume that those who do not fall under the above-explained definition of a worker are exempt from Section-32's requirements.

Conclusion

The OSHO code specifies leaves that one needs to take but multiple state government have their own rules and regulations in place. Hence its imperative that one understand what changes are there to avoid any penalties. For Example: Maharashtra allows for an accumulation of 45 days of leave against 30 days and when such discrepancies arises, a conflict can arise but its observed that mostly ruling goes in favor of the stakeholder. Hence, it is imperative to have minor adjustments to specific rules as per location to avoid any issues