Leave and Holidays

[akhilesh dubey]

I suggest a practice which is followed by PSU's

1: National Holidays.-Enforceable by law (i.e. 26 Jan, 15 Aug and 2nd Oct)
2. Gazetted Holidays: Includes major festivals limited to 12 numbers. Decided by collective employee representative/ groups. The list may vary from unit to unit.
3. Restricted Holidays: Includes all minor festivals . List may reach up to 30 or more. Any employee is free to opt any two days out of the list. Leave Application/ Notice may be moved three days earlier.

Upon this pattern you can make two list of Notified and optional holidays. Employees will have option to choose from options.




Surely we need to develop an approach to make balance between communitarianism value system and individualistic value system by leading from communitarianism to individualistic value system or vice versa. Some way you will feel there is a valid need to address sensitivity of an individual person also.

Deciding leaves and holidays for an organization is not a job to be finished any how. There must be some rationalization.

There will be a policy “at least how many days the office will function in a year. e.g. 280 days. (Many industrial plants run through out of year. This part is not addressed here.)


At least what percentage of employee population is needed to run office effectively? Make an example the office population is 100 and 80% are needed run office effectively. (Assuming critical positioning exercise has been done. There are clear instructions that who will look after the critical position if the position holder is not present.)

Assume that during some festival of a particular community, holiday is not declared. 30% percent population is absent by taking casual\sick leave. Productivity of office went to bottom. Those who are present, they also are not working properly and trying to leave office early at evening. Even after that all those dissatisfaction with grunting and hissing is present.

Q. Is it beneficial to remain office functional that day?

It may be better to plan this way:

Keep in mind minimum numbers of functional days e.g. 280 days remaining days in a year = 85

Statuary holiday e.g. Sundays=`=~ 52. Remains days 85-52=33

Leaves to address personal needs, casual leaves=12 (100% consumption at extreme condition)

Again remaining days=33-12= 21

Coming to holidays addressing common social needs (GH) = restricted to 12+-2*
(e.g. * If all your client office are closed on X`mas day, and you choose to keep it functional that day because you have no Christian employee. what productivity will be of your office. By closing it at least you can save some electricity bill and can earn a smile in employee face. Need not to say if the attitude is different, you are standing with other happiness and serving a national cause)

Holidays addressing demography specific social needs (RH) = restricted to 2+-1
(Where less than 20% of the population is supposed to use it at a single event. Make the list comprehensive enough. For example if there are only 10 festivals in RH list. It may likely to be consumed @ 20% at each holiday, which will **** the purpose at last. If it has more than 30 festivals, more likely 2-3% absenteeism will be there which is manageable. There will be no need to restrict a Muslim to not take a leave at Mahashivratri and a Hindu on Ester. Off course no one can stop. Surely competent authority holds the power to grant the sanction in the ground of inadequate manpower or some other type of emergency. But if he does so, it is itself an indicator of mismanagement, bad planning and organizing.)

Remaining days 21-14=7

There are still 7 days in hand to handle any emergency otherwise it is ensured that office will remain functional for more than 280 days.


May please refer the list where the last 13 are chosen as GH and rest as RH by employee representative groups. (List of festivals is provided to them along with guide lines to select GH days)


LIST OF HOLIDAYS FOR THE YEAR 2008


Sl. No. Holiday Date 1929-30 SAKA ERA Day of Week
1 New Year Day January 01 Pausa 11 Tuesday
2 Guru Govind Singh's Birthday January 05 Pausa 15 Saturday
3 Makara Sankranti (N. India) January 14 Pausa 24 Monday
4 Makara Sankranti (Bengal)/Pongal January 15 Pausa 25 Tuesday
5 Muharram January 19 Pausa 29 Saturday
6 Basant Panchami / Shree Panchami February 11 Magha 22 Monday
7 Sivaji Jayanti February 19 Magha 30 Tuesday
8 Guru Ravidas Birthday February 21 Phalguna 02 Thursday
9 Maharishi Dayanand Saraswati Jayanti March 02 Phalguna 12 Sunday
10 Good Friday/Holika Dahan (Dol Yatra) March 21 Chaitra 01 Friday
11 Easter (Sunday) March 23 Chaitra 03 Sunday
12 Milad-Un-Nabi (Birthday of Prophet Mohammed) April 01 Chaitra 11 Friday
13 Chaitra Sukhaladi/Gudi Padava/Ugadi/Cheti Chand April 07 Chaitra 18 Monday
14 Vaisakhi/Vishu April 13 Chaitra 24 Sunday
15 Vaisakhadi (Bengal)/Bahag Bihu (Assam)/Mesadi April 14 Chaitra 25 Monday
16 Mahavir Jayanti April 18 Chaitra 29 Friday
17 Birthday of Rabindra Nath Tagore May 08 Vaishakha 18 Thursday
18 Buddha Purnima May 20 Vaishakha 30 Tuesday
19 Rath Yatra July 04 Asadha 13 Friday
20 Hazarat Ali's Birthday July 17 Asadha 26 Thursday
21 Raksha Bandhan August 16 Sravana 25 Saturday
22 Parsi New Year 19-Aug Sravana 28 Tuesday
23 Janmashtami (Smarta & Vaishnava) August 24 Bhadra 02 Sunday
24 Ganesh Chaturthi/Vinayak Chaturthi September 03 Bhadra 12 Wednesday
25 Onam September 12 Bhadra 21 Friday
26 Jamat-Ul-Vida September 26 Asvina 04 Friday
27 Dussehra (Maha Saptami) (Additional) October 06 Asvina 14 Monday
28 Dussehra (Maha Ashtami) (Additional) October 07 Asvina 15 Tuesday
29 Maharishi Valmiki's Birthday October 14 Asvina 22 Tuesday
30 Narak Chaturdasi October 27 Kartika 05 Monday
31 Govardhan Puja October 29 Kartika 07 Wednesday
32 Bhai Duj October 30 Kartika 08 Thursday
33 Guru Teg Bahadur's Martyrdrom Day November 24 Agrahayana 03 Monday
34 Christmas Eve December 24 Pausa 03 Wednesday
1 Republic Day January 26 Magha 06 Saturday
2 Maha Shivratri March 06 Phalguna 16 Thursday
3 Holi March 22 Chaitra 02 Saturday
4 Ram Navami (Vaisnava) April 14 Chaitra 25 Monday
5 Independence Day August 15 Sravana 24 Friday
6 Mahatma Gandhi's Birthday/Idul Fitr October 02 Asvina 10 Thursday
7 Dussehra (Maha Navami) October 08 Asvina 16 Wednesday
8 Dussehra (Vijaya Dashami) October 09 Asvina 17 Thursday
9 Deepavali (South India) October 27 Kartika 05 Monday
10 Diwali (Deepavali) October 28 Kartika 06 Tuesday
11 Guru Nanak's Birthday November 13 Kartika 22 Thursday
12 Idu'l Zuha (Bakrid) December 09 Agrahayana 18 Tuesday
13 Christmas Day December 25 Pausa 04 Thursday