Methods to restrict late attendance in the Organization:-
Late attendance is normally governed by the Service Rules/certified Standing
Orders. However, following methods can be adopted to restrict late
attendance;
1. There should be a message from the Top Management informing all
employee that Punctuality & time Management is part of their Organization
Culture.
2. All employees including Top Management should set example in this
respect.
3. Half day leave can be deducted for every 3 Late Comings.
4. Half day leave can be deducted for every one early leaving.
5. It has to be highlighted during Training Sessions.
6. Counselling is always a better tool.
7. Display message/articles pertaining to Time Management and Punctuality more frequently in order to educate all the employees. It will also help us in making all the employee to realize the importance.
Can late sitting in Office be justifiable ground on late coming?
Late sitting in the office is no excuse or justification for coming late in
the morning. It is a matter of discipline and HR Dept/Employer must handle it firmly.
Please check the relevance of late sitting of such people in the
office.
Employer has a right to insist on regular and punctual attendance of
an employee which is an implied condition of employment. Late attendance is
a kind of absece from duty. Though casual late attendance may not be treated as a serious misconduct but where an employee was late for more than 6 time in a year and yet persisted in his late attendance, his dismissal on this
account is justified.
Some important case laws of recent times.
👨‍⚖Abandonment to be presumed when workman did not resume duty despite intimation……… Del HC
👨‍⚖Recommendation of Internal Committee without any reasoning is unsustainable………. HP HC
👨‍⚖Reporting on duty and entering room of Principal in inebriated condition is a grave misconduct…………… MP HC
👨‍⚖Non Registration of Principal employer or License by Contractor, the workers will be treated as employees of Principal Employer …….. SC
👨‍⚖A work of pumping of water will be treated as manufacturing process in factory………… SC
👨‍⚖During enquiry under section 7A, any person other than employer or employee can be asked to cooperate……….. MP HC
👨‍⚖EPF & MP Act, 1952 does not mandate the authorities to impose penalty in every case…….P&H HC
Read MoreWAGES / SALARIES & OTHER DETAILS UNDER THE PAYMENT OF BONUS ACT, 1965?
Question?
1) What is to be included in and excluded from a salary or wage for the purpose of calculating bonus?
Answer:
For the purpose of calculation of bonus a salary or wage includes a basic salary or wage and dearness allowance but does not include other allowances, overtime salary or wage, house rent allowance, traveling concessions, bonus, employer’s contribution to provident fund, retrenchment compensation, gratuity or commission. {Section 2(21)}.
Question:
2) Is an employee entitled to get bonus on the basis of his entire salary or wage?
Answer:
If an employee is drawing a salary or wage not exceeding Rs. 7000/- per month, he is entitled to get bonus on his entire salary or wage.
If an employee is getting a salary or wage exceeding Rs. 7000/- per month, but not exceeding 21000/- per month, the bonus payable to him is to be calculated as if his salary or wage were Rs.7000/- per month or the minimum wages whichever is higher.
An employee getting a salary or wage exceeding Rs. 21000/- per month is not entitled to get bonus. {Section 12}.
Question
3) Minimum how many days eligible employee should work in preceding accounting year to get Bonus under the Act?
Answer
30 days.
Question
4) Can any amount be adjusted or recovered from the Bonus amount payable to the employee?
Answer
Yes, an advance amount of Bonus paid to the employee, amount of misappropriation or embezzlement made by an employee can be adjusted against Bonus amount payable to theployee.
Question
5) After how many years from the commencement of the business Company is supposed to pay Bonus under the Act?
Answer
1st 5 years is an jnfancy period during which Company is not required to pay Bonus provided Company has not incurred a profit. Thus, during 1st Five years, the year in which Company incurs a profit, for that year payment of Bonus is mandatory. However after 5 years, even if Company incurs losses payment of Bonus is must.
Question
6) What is the % of minimum and maximum Bonus?
Answer
Minimum Bonus payable is 8.33% and maximum Bonus payable is 20%
Question
7) How % of Bonus is derived from the Financial Statements of the Company?
Answer
%of Bonus from 8.33 to 20% is to be derived from allowable surplus and available surplus and set on and set off amount.
Question
8) Applicability of Payment of Bonus Act?
Answer
Factory having 10 or more employees and Establishment having 20 or more employees, the Payment of Bonus Act is applicable.
Moonlighting is a Double-Edged Sword – Is It Really Legal in India?
The recent announcement of Moonlighting policy by Swiggy has caused an upheaval! There are opinions ranging from ‘two-timing’ and ‘cheating’ and
about ‘increased employee morale!’ Moonlighting essentially means the pursuit of a job carried out by an employee of a company after his regular office hours.
This is not even Freelancing as freelancers work for many companies simultaneously and are not permanent employees of a certain company.
Moonlighting can emerge from a hobby, or an interest and it can be monetised
or can be pro bono.
However, the employee has to declare to his company about the same and there should be no conflict of interest. Moreover, the
external projects should not impact the productivity of the main employment.
With the onset of the Pandemic, moonlighting has gained momentum.
A lot of people who take up secondary jobs are only trying to satisfy their appetite for growth, learning and doing what they love.
There are a number of portals which extend the opportunity to work part-time and earn extra income. This
is probably GIG working with a twist! It is important to understand the
intersection of Gig Economy, Millennials & GenZ (GEMZ).
BMS seeks affiliation with ITUC, two Indian trade unions oppose it.
The Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS), a trade union supported by the Rashtriya
Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), is facing stiff opposition from two Indian unions –
the Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC) of the Congress and the Hind Mazdoor Sabha (HMS) of the socialists – in its bid to become an
affiliate of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC).
Both INTUC and HMS, besides the Self Employed Women’s Association (SEWA)and
the Confederation of Free Trade Unions of India (CFTUI), are Indian affiliates of ITUC, an international body of independent trade unions from
187 countries. The support of ITUC is crucial for any union to be elected to
the workers’ representatives in the governing body of the International
Labour Organisation (ILO)…
Why there is delay in crediting interest in members’ PF A/c……. Some analysis
The Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO), set up in 1952, is among the major public social security organisations in the world.
In 2021, EPFO managed assets worth Rs 15.7 lakh crore (7.7 percent of 2019-20 GDP of Rs 203.3 lakh crore); had 69 million members; provided pensions to 7.1 million persons; and settled over 37 million claims.
As India is experiencing moderately rapid ageing; and with advances in Fintech and India’s drive towards a digital economy, there is much greater urgency to ensure that the EPFO modernises its governance, investment and other processes to enable its members to better cope with ageing; and to continue to be relevant.
Estimates by the United Nations project that India’s elderly population (65+) will increase from 48 million (4.5 percent of the population) in 2000 to massive 256 million (15 percent) in 2050; and in the same period working age population (21 to 64 years) will increase from 512 million (48.4 percent) to 990 million (59.2 percent).
With increasing formalisation of the labour force, demands on EPFO’s governance structures and on its work processes will grow enormously.
How EPFO invests its funds and credits interest income.
The issue of delay in crediting interest to members
Over the years, there has been a persistently long time lag between the time EPFO’s Board of Trustees decides on the rate of interest for the financial year and the time the interest actually gets credited to the accounts of the members.
Take the 2020-21 interest cycle. The interest of 8.5% was decided by the EPFO’s Board of Trustees in March 2021. This was notified by the EPFO to members by a circular in October 2021. But the interest rate was credited in December 2021.
The gap between March and December was nearly nine months, an extraordinary delay.
Earlier this year, it was reported that interest for 2021-22 was supposed to be credited by July 2022, still a gap of about four months.
Why EPF interest credit to your accounts gets delayed every year
Why does this delay occur?
The root cause of the delay is that the EPFO has not followed the global norm of paying interest to members on the basis of its market-related earnings. Instead, the EPFO has relied on the administered rate of interest, exemplified by declaring interest rate in March, which is before the end of the financial year.
This reliance has meant that the EPFO, even after 70 years of operations, does not have an in-house investment team which can act as a check on mandates to the external fund managers.
Another major reason for the delay is that the EPFO under the Ministry of Labour and Employment needs to get approval from the Ministry of Finance (MoF) for the interest rate it proposes.
This is because this step involves a substantial sum and all the contingent liabilities (in case EPFO does not have enough income to pay the interest), and the EPFO’s rate could create imbalances among different saving instruments which have larger implications for the financial and capital markets.
The approaches of MoF and EPFO to financial matters are different. Moreover, MoF needs to check the financials of the EPFO, requiring format and depth that EPFO’s management information systems may not readily provide.
Why does the delay matter?
In any provident fund, the ultimate accumulation of balances of a member at retirement depends on preserving these balances till retirement to benefit from the power of compound interest, and on the rate of interest.
The rule of 72 suggests that 72 divided by the rate of interest provides the number of years in which the balances double. An eight percent interest would double the balances in nine years.
But if there is a delay in crediting interest by say four months every year, over a work career spanning 25 years, it implies that for 100 months, the interest on balances was not earned. This is a violation of EPFOs fiduciary duty and is not fair to members coping with longer life expectancy as it reduces their retirement income.
What can be done?
A short-term, stop-gap measure would be to credit between 60 and 65 percent of interest declared by the Board of Trustees within less than a month, with some safeguards. The rest could be paid when MoF approval is given.
In recent years, the EPFO has made efforts to improve services to members. But a political decision is needed to transform it into a modern professional social security organisation, with greater powers and accountability. This would include modern investment management practices (National Pension Scheme Trust, or the NPST, has shown how this can be done), with a mandate to pay interest from its investment earnings. ‘
The EPFO should be transformed into an autonomous organisation with modern governance structures and needed skillsets and technology, operating under prudent and transparent rules and regulations.
India is well on its way to attaining a $5 trillion economy status and is aiming higher. It has ambitious FinTech and digital economy goals. EPFO’s current governance structures, skillsets, investment management and work process are not in tune with the country’s ambitions and with the aspirations of its members. It is time for the structural reform of the EPFO.
Restraining employees not to join compititors – Not Valid
Such a stipulation, will be against public policy as interpreted under section 23 of the Indian Contract Act whereby such contracts are void and hence prohibited. Reference is made to one case wherein it had been held that an agreement with an employee not to undertake employment for a period of 12 months after leaving the job will be violative of the provisions of Contract Act. In this case M/s PEPSI FOODS LTD. sought an injunction against the employee in joining the compititors but the same was declined by the Delhi High Court.
Read MoreEmployee has to pay tax on EPF interest, if ceases to be in employment
The Employees Provident Funds and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952
Tax laws provide that interest credited to an employee provident fund (EPF) account after an individual ceases to be in employment is taxable in his hands in the year of credit.
In its recent order, the Bengaluru bench of the Income- Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) also upheld this I-T provision while adjudicating the matter of a retired employee. Post-employment, whether on account of termination, resignation or retirement, several employees continue to maintain their EPF accounts and earn interest on the same. Unfortunately, they are usually not aware of the tax implications on the interest accretion in the fund after termination of employment. Investment consultants point out that even in the case heard by ITAT, the taxpayer had mistakenly thought that the interest which had accrued to his EPF account post his retirement was not taxable. This recent ITAT ruling is pertinent not only for retired employees, but also those who have quit employment for various reasons, say, to be an entrepreneur or a homemaker, and have continued to retain a balance in their EPF accounts. According to a notification issued last November, when an employee resigns from his job or his services are terminated, his EPF account continues to be “operative” and earns an interest until he applies for withdrawal of the accumulated balance or takes up another job and transfers the balance. On the other hand, interest accrual norms are different for a retired employee. If an employee retires after 55 years of age and does not apply for withdrawal from his EPF account or transfer of the balance, then post three years from the date of retirement, his EPF account is treated as “inoperative” and does not earn any interest. The applicable rate of interest is announced each year. For the recently concluded financial year 2016-17, the interest rate was 8.65% and rates for the current financial year are expected to be announced shortly. In the recent case, the employee had retired from a Bengaluru headquartered software company after 26 years of service, on April 1, 2002, and the total amount in his EPF account then was Rs 37.93 lakh. Nine years later, on April 11, 2011, he withdrew the grown sum of Rs. 82 lakh from his EPF account. This amount included interest of Rs. 44.07 lakh that had accrued post his retirement till the date of withdrawal. The retired employee did not offer this interest amount to tax, as he viewed it would be exempt under Section 10 (12) of the I-T Act. During assessment proceedings for financial year 2011-12, the I-T officer sought to levy tax on this amount and the litigation finally reached ITAT’s doors. Based on a reading of Section 10(12) and also the definition of “accumulated balance”, the ITAT held: “The exemption is limited to the accumulated balance due and payable to an employee up to the date of his retirement or end of his employment. “ITAT pointed out that the term “accumulated balance due to an employee” is defined as the balance standing to his credit, or such portion of it as may be claimed by the concerned employee under the regulations of the fund “on the day he ceases to be an employee”. Thus, the ITAT agreed that the interest earned post retirement was taxable in the hands of the retired employee. However, it added that the aggregate interest of Rs. 44.07 lakh should be taxable in the hands of the retired employee, in the respective financial years in which the interest income actually arose. So, in view of this judicial pronouncement employee should be careful about keeping him PF earnings in EPF account even after cessation of employment.
Read MoreCase Law Details Case Name : Kaushal Kishor Singh Vs Sita Kuoni World Travel India Ltd. (Delhi High Court) Appeal Number : W.P.(C) 11631/2018 Date of Judgement/Order : 01/09/2022 Related Assessment Year : Courts
The law is well settled that the burden of proving the relationship of employer and employee lies on the workman.
The inference regarding this relationship has to be inferred from facts and circumstances in each case and no general view can be taken in such matters. In the present case the award is well-reasoned and has been passed after duly considering and evaluating the evidence placed on record.
Ld. Labour Court has rightly appreciated that the workman has failed to establish the relationship of employer-employee with the management.
A bare perusal of the documents filed as evidence on behalf of the petitioner workman, which includes the various emails and the Forms under 16A, do not, in any way, prove that there existed any relationship of employer “employee between the parties. The emails show mere correspondence and the Form 16A categorically reflects that TDS was deducted by the Management in respect of payments made to the petitioner under the head of payments made to contractors and sub-contractors”, thereby disqualifying the petitioner to fall within the definition of workman as enumerated under Section 2(s) of ID Act.
Read MoreWhy Indian Youth Dislikes Hotel Management Jobs
Rampant layoffs during the pandemic, coupled with increased work burden, long hours and low wages, has seen hospitality students shift to industries like ecommerce, retail, real estate, consulting and health care etc.
Jerson Fernandes, executive chef of the Novelette Mumbai Juhu Beach Hotel, is at the end of his tether and it is not owing to the challenge of managing six food and beverage outlets or keeping food costs within 28 per cent of revenue. It is the drying stream of young hospitality graduates to join the kitchen staff that is bothering him.
He is also learning to handle the current crop with kid gloves. Two weeks after joining, his recent hire, a young prep chef, threw in the towel and complained to the HR head. “He was uncomfortable with the language used in the kitchens. However, in such high-pressure environments, where temperatures are always high, literally and figuratively, one cannot always be courteous. All chefs have gone through this learning curve,” Fernandes explains, adding that today, fewer recruits are comfortable in such an environment, especially when they have options outside the hospitality industry.
Moreover, he has limited options for hiring these entry-level workers. Earlier, the hotel would recruit them from hospitality institutes like Institute of Hotel Management, Rizvi College of Hospitality, ITM Institute of Hotel Management, etc but he is now reliant on vendors who send workers for the day with no guarantee that they would return to work the next day.
Today, this endemic situation is seen across the hospitality sector. It is even more dire as the total workforce requirement of the industry rests at over 18 lakh, with more than 21 per cent of jobs posted for entry-level positions, according to a study published by the National Skill Development Corporation of India.
Rajan Bahadur, CEO of the Tourism and Hospitality Skill Council, notes that the entry-level positions are majorly for food delivery personnel, housekeepers, waiters, cooks, kitchen helpers, kitchen stewards, front office staff, receptionists and pantry associates. This is in addition to the requirement of over 1 lakh people in the tourism sector, including tour guides, travel agents, travel consultants and tour drivers. “The current attrition trends add a further 25-30 per cent to this,” he says.
So, why are young hospitality graduates resisting to enter the hospitality industry?
Vikram Singh Chauhan, founder, Nile Hospitality, believes a lot of it has to do with the discrepancy between perception and reality. Hotels are associated with sophistication, ease and geniality, but the on-ground experience can seem drastically different for hospitality graduates, especially in the aftermath of the pandemic. “Faced with issues like longer work hours, ever-evolving guest expectations and demands, and lack of market parity in pay, they are wary about muscling in this space. Instead, industries where soft interpersonal skills are in demand, like IT, retail, real estate, logistics and the gig economy, attract them,” Singh opines.
The young professionals also witnessed many of their peers putting their health at risk and being part of the nation’s frontline warriors during the battle against Covid-19 in 2020 and 2021. This fear of loss of life, coupled with layoffs, could have dented their confidence in the industry’s unbeatable reputation of a job creator.
Today, students are also evaluating whether their job roles after graduation are commensurate with the time and money they have invested into the hospitality course. And these are not small investments. Institute of Hotel Management’s diploma in food production and certificate courses in cookery and bakery cost approximately Rs 4,75,000, while bachelor of science in hospitality studies at the ITM Institute of Hotel Management costs around Rs 6,62,000.
Bahadur states that after investing heavily in their education, the majority of graduates aspire to start their careers at a supervisory or management level. Only 10 per cent of the best of students are offered management trainees—a position that trains, skills and grooms a graduate to become a supervisor or manager through an in-house dedicated programme.
Moreover, the temperament of the millennials and GenZ is distinct from that of their predecessors. For these purpose-driven generations, experiences, personal growth and learning are just as critical as the position, compensation, and prospects.
Abdul Nasir Shaikh, Group CEO of the Lexicon Group of Institutes, points out another reason for students jumping ship: the massive gap between academia and the industry. “Students passing out from hospitality institutes are not up to date regarding the industry other than the little exposure during their industrial internships. It affects their performance and leaves them unable to cope at work,” he says. Trained in soft skills and basics of interacting with customers and product knowledge, hospitality graduates hence prefer moving to profiles like retail, aviation, and real estate as these sectors offer attractive compensations with various other benefits, he adds.
Then there is also the valid aspect of ambitions abroad. “Many hospitality professionals seek employment opportunities overseas, specifically in the Middle East, which has a high demand for trained professionals and where salary levels and quality of life are far better,” says Dilip Puri, founder and CEO of the Indian School of Hospitality. With Qatar’s FIFA World Cup in sight, young professionals are making a beeline to the Middle Eastern nation as job opportunities abound.
Feeling The Heat
With the resumption of international travel and the continued interest from domestic tourists, the hospitality industry is finally getting the much-needed kickstart after two years of sporadic operations. The current workforce crunch has resulted in stunted growth for the sector which is desperately needs business recovery.
Moreover, hotel chains are expanding to Tier II and Tier III towns where travel has seen a considerable uptick. Traditional hiring patterns and roles have changed as people are expected to multitask and handle the growing digitisation in the business.
“Even those seeking to work in the hospitality industry are looking for careers in functional disciplines such as sales and marketing, revenue management and HR, and do not want to work in operations. This is largely because of a stereotyped, albeit correct, notion that such jobs require long working hours and are not paid as well as other disciplines,” says Puri. There is a critical need for the industry to change this perception and increase the attractiveness index of operations in hospitality, the hotelier-turned-educator adds.
Currently, the hospitality industry is facing an over 60 per cent demand-supply gap in manpower. While the sector faced a shortage of trained workforce in food and beverage service and housekeeping in pre-pandemic times, this shortage has worsened as many skilled staffers were retrenched during Covid-19. These employees, who either returned to their native towns, entered other verticals or even started their own businesses, are unwilling to return to the sector.
Quoting an estimate from an internal study conducted by the Federation of Hotel and Restaurant Association of India, Mehul Sharma, founder of Signum Hotels, dolefully says that the strain comes from the fact that while the total number of trained workforce required for the sector would be close to 60,000, 40,000 will be required for the department of tourism-approved hotels alone.
Bridging The Gap
To tackle this massive human resource challenge, hotels are now taking a step back to revisit the sector’s perception as one with inhumane hours and low pay. There is an increased emphasis on employee wellbeing, health and safety as they introduce revamped benefits strategies, offer more flexibility and even overhaul their workplace culture to make it more people friendly. Signum’s Sharma even recommends adopting strategies like mid-term salary revisions and extraordinary pay raises to retain efficient employees.
In terms of work hours, Ravi Pachamuthu, chairman, SRM Group points out that the sector is shifting towards nine-hour duty, two days off, better pay packages and progressive designations, saying that these policies would help the company ramp up its workforce which currently has 400 people on its payroll.
How hotels treat and care for students during their industrial training makes all the difference. Shaikh bats for weekly engagement by the executive committee, senior leadership, and one-on-one with the general manager at regular intervals of the training program. “Through this bond, the engagement will be high and thereby the absorption in the industry,” he says.
Hotels are also on a hiring spree now. Lemon Tree Hotels, which retrenched several employees last year, plans to hire around 1,500 people as it opens 20 hotels. Royal Orchid and Regenta Hotels also plan to hire 1,000 people as it expands to new markets and cities by adding 100 hotels to its portfolio in 2022. “We have stepped up our hiring efforts from entry-level to senior positions across the group. Hiring today, at our group, has been recovery-led,” says Chander Baljee, the CMD of the group.
According to the Naukri JobSpeak Index, hiring in the hospitality sector, including hotels, restaurants and airlines, grew by 58 per cent in November 2021 as compared to the year before. Hotel chains expanding to Tier II and Tier III cities also opens up opportunities. KB Kachru, vice president of Hotel Association of India and chairman emeritus and principal advisor, South Asia, Radisson Hotel Group, says that this expansion has increased the need for front desk and housekeeping staffers in addition to software and app developers, process automation specialists, and data analysts. “Apart from the metros, cities like Jaipur, Vadodara, Kochi, and Hyderabad have maintained positive hiring momentum, which is expected to grow in the coming months,” he says.
AK Singh, director of FHRAI Institute of Hospitality Management, talks about the service-oriented nature of the business and how hospitality professionals in the organised sector require in-depth training which can range from six months to three years. “The high demand in the unorganised sector is often met by untrained but experienced staff. However, we still need to train people in the unorganised sector under the Hunar se Rozgar skill development programme for skilling, reskilling or upskilling,” he says, suggesting a way to bridge the gap
Read More