In cases where the employee has no casual leave pending, the deduction will happen from the paid leave. Going to a bureaucrat’s office and hearing the peon say, “Sahab ab tak nahin aaye” will soon be a thing of the past. That is if the Maharashtra government has its way.
Cracking the whip on habitual latecomers, Maharashtra has decided to start penalising staff, including senior state employees, who turn up late for work. It has decided to start deducting earned leaves of latecomers.
According to a new circular issued by the Uddhav Thackeray-led General Administration Department, three or more days of tardiness in a month will lead to forfeiture of a day’s casual leave. Further those reporting late to work for over nine or more days will see a daily deduction of earned leaves.
In cases where the employee has no casual leave pending, the deduction will happen from the paid leave. In cases where all balance leaves have been exhausted, the employee will lose pay.
Giving lessons in punctuality to employees, the new circular also said that those reporting an hour and a half late for more than two occasions will have to stay back after office hours to make up for the lost time. The normal reporting time for Mantralaya employees is 9.45 am. Citing travel constraints, the government has permitted a grace period of an hour. The time between 10.45 am and 12.15 pm will be treated as late arrival, while those coming later than that lose a half day’s salary. The government has, however, said being late due to trains running behind schedule and other valid reasons should be condoned.
Department heads have been asked to review attendance of their staff on a monthly basis, asking each one of them to submit biannual reports.