| CIRCULAR |
| From PERSONNEL DEPARTMENT,COCHIN To ALL DEPARTMENTS AND BRANCH OFFICES. |
| As it is found expedient to spell out clearly the leave rules to be followed uniformly by all categories of staff working at Head Office and Branches, the following guidelines and clarifications are issued for compliance:- |
| (1) Leave is not a matter of right of the employee and it will be granted at the discretion of the Management depending on the exigencies of work. |
| (2) In general, all types of leave can be availed only with the prior approval of the leave sanctioning authority. In case of emergencies when such prior approval cannot be obtained by the employee concerned, it shall be his/her responsibility to convince the sanctioning authority of the same to avoid denial of leave applied. |
| (3) The leave year for all types of leave shall be uniform for all and will be from April to March, as already circulated. |
| (4) The L.T.A claim period will also be computed uniformly for all from April to March every year and can be claimed after March. |
| (5) The quantum of leave eligibility shall be uniform for all employees as under: |
| (a) Casual Leave : 12 days yearly & will be credited during April |
| (b) Sick Leave : 12 days yearly & will be credited during April |
| (c) Privilege Leave : 24 days yearly & will be credited after completion of one year of work, every April. |
| (d) Special Sick Leave : Nil |
| (6) Exhaustion of one type of leave does not make any employee automatically eligible for availing another type of leave since each type of leave is governed by different norms. |
| (7) Casual Leave: |
| (i) More than three days Casual Leave cannot be availed at a spell . |
| (ii) Casual Leave can be prefixed and or suffixed to any holidays. However, it can neither be prefixed nor suffixed to any other type of leave even if there is an intervening holiday. |
| (8) Sick Leave: |
| (i) Medical Certificate of treatment from a registered Medical Practitioner has to be produced for sick leave of more than 3 days duration. However, those who claim leave/compensation under the provisions of the E.S.I. Act, should ensure compliance thereon. |
| (ii) For resuming duty after availing more than 3 days sick leave, a Fitness Certificate from a Registered Medical Practitioner will have to be produced. |
| (iii) A single spell sick leave can be prefixed and or suffixed to holidays. However, in case of extension of the sick leave after the intervening holiday, the intervening holiday also will be counted as sick leave. |
| (iv) In case of continued sickness of more than 3 days and beyond a week at a time supported by Medical Certificate from a registered Medical Practitioner, Privilege Leave can be applied if no sick leave is there in the credit of the employee and the same may or may not be approved by the sanctioning authority at his own discretion. However, intervening holidays, if any, will be considered a part of either sick or privilege leave in such cases also. |
| (v) Sick Leave can be accumulated up to 24 days beyond which the excess will be lapsed. |
| (9) Privilege Leave: |
| (i) For availing Privilege Leave, application should be submitted at least 7 days before the date of availing of leave; except in unforeseen circumstances which is to be convincible to the sanctioning authority. |
| (ii) Only 3 spells of Privilege Leave will be allowed in a year and the same will not be sanctioned less than 4 days, at a time. |
| (iii) In the matter of Privilege Leave, intervening Sundays and holidays will also be treated as leave. |
| (iv) Privilege Leave can be prefixed and or suffixed to any holidays. |
| (v) While availing L.T.A ,at least 7 days Privilege Leave is to be availed. |
| (vi) Privilege Leave can be accumulated up to 60 days. |
| In case of exigencies, at the discretion of Department Head, availing of Privilege Leave in connection with L.T.A can be postponed subject to the employee availing the same within 3 months of the period applied, failing which the same will lapse. |
| (10) An employee instructed to attend duty on a weekly holiday due to exigencies of work shall be allowed to avail a compensatory weekly off within 3 days preceding or succeeding such weekly holiday, as deemed expedient to the Company. |
| (11) It is made abundantly clear that for any employee working in any Department, weekly holiday and working hours suitable to the working of that Department will be applicable. Five-Day-Week introduced in the Head Office is purely an economic initiative and not a right of an employee and the same is not applicable to any other Branch, Estate or site of work. Any employee called upon to attend duty on a weekly Saturday due to exigency of work cannot claim compensatory off for working on a weekly Saturday except when such Saturday is a national or festival holiday declared by the Company. |
| (K.A. GEORGE) |
| 12th September, 2003. |