Leave Policy – Zones India

Overview

At Zones we work hard but also believe that taking time off from work is essential, both personally and
professionally. Vacations are a privilege, not an entitlement, and they are provided to give team members the
rest they need and deserve after working hard. Team members are required to seek pre-approval from their
managers for time off, unless they have an emergency situation which prevents pre-planning of the time off and
must call in for a short notice / same day leave.
Leave Categories at Zones, India

S.No. Leave Category No. of leaves

1 Company Paid Leaves (CL / SL / PL) 2 Leaves Per working Month
2 Bereavement Leave 3 days

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3 Family Medical Leave Up to 12 weeks (Leave Without Pay)*
4 Paternity Leave 3 days
5 Maternity Leave As per Govt. rules
6 Compensatory Leaves Accrual in lieu of Company Specific Holidays

7 Company Holidays
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8 - 11 days, basis the holiday calendar by the
respective entities.
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*Weekends immediately pre-fixing or suffixing a leave without pay period would also be treated as without pay
days.

1. Company Paid Leaves (Casual/ Sick/ Privilege Leaves)

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Company Paid Leaves accrue to the team member at the rate of 2 days for every completed month of service in
the year.
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A minimum 20 calendar days of salary credit every month would be taken as the cutoff for a team member’s
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criterion of being able to accrue the benefit of leaves for that month. The leaves will be credited in the team
member’s account on the salary processing day.
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Conditions to Use / Avail Leaves:

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Duration of Leave (Calendar Days) Application Lead Time Required for Leave Approval from Manager
1 2 days
2 5 days
3 14 days
More than 30 days (Sandwich Weekends & company holidays will
not be counted as total leave duration)
4 calendar days and above*
Less than 30 days (Sandwich Weekends & company holidays will be
counted as the total leave duration)

*4 calendar days and above leaves can only be availed for a maximum of 3 times in a calendar year.

• No advance availing of leaves would be allowed and if leaves are requested when there are no leaves
accrued these may or may not be sanctioned by your Reporting Manager. If sanctioned by your
Reporting Manager these would be Leaves without pay.
• Weekends immediately prefixing or suffixing a leave without pay period would also be treated as
without pay days.
 • Pre-approved leaves are also liable to be cancelled if the work situation so warrants.

Unscheduled / Unplanned leaves

• For emergency situations warranting same day leaves the information has to be given directly to the
Reporting Manager at least 4 hours prior to starting of your shift timings. Failure to do so will result in
your absence being treated as Leave without information (& pay) and would be liable for strict
disciplinary action.
In case an team member avails leaves for 3 or more days without permission or intimation to the
Reporting Manager & there is no information of such leave provided to HR team via Attendance
system, he/she will be deemed to be absconding. The company reserves the right to terminate the
services of employment without any benefits in such cases by terming it as “resignation by job
abandonment.”

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The company encourages the team members to plan their time off from work. While it is understood
that at times team members may face an emergency situation which prevents pre-planning of the time
off and the team member is constrained to call in for a same day leave; however, where there are
excessive instances of same day leaves from a particular team member, the company may call for

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disciplinary action against such team member. The same day leaves may or may not be approved
depending upon the availability of other team members and workload on that day.
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• Same day leave if taken on a Friday and/or a Monday or immediately before and/or after a long
weekend would be treated in the manner where in all days between the team member’s last presence
at work to the day on which the team member reports for work would be treated as leaves even if these
happen to be a weekend or a declared holiday i.e. if taken on a Friday and/or Monday of a normal
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weekend it would be counted as 3/4 days leave and if taken just before or after a 3 day weekend it
would mean 4/5 days leave and so on. Zones reserves the right to seek explanation from the said team
member for the reason warranting such leave, in case the team member desires for condonement for
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treatment of the leave taken as per policy.

2. Bereavement Leave
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In the unfortunate event of demise of an immediate family member* a team member can take up to 3 days as
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Bereavement Leave subject to the condition of them having completed at least 90-day tenure with the
organization. These 3 days may or may not be taken consecutively but should be availed within 30 days of the
unfortunate event.
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*As definition, immediate family members would mean Team member’s partner / Spouse, Biological / adopted
/ Step children, Parents, Parents in Law, own and spouse’s siblings and grandparents only. All other relationships
would not be treated as immediate family and would not be applicable for the adjustment against this leave
category.

3. Family Medical Leave (Leave without pay)

Team members who have worked for at least 200 days in the previous 12 months tenure with the organization
can be allowed the privilege of availing up to 12 weeks of Leave without pay to cater to some defined
circumstances, primarily hovering around medical conditions of self / spouse / children / dependents (parents
or family members). It remains the team member’s responsibility to submit the required documentation to
Human Resources in support of their request for leaves under this criterion.
4. Paternity Leave
Paternity Leave is granted to a married team member for up to two children only for maximum 3 working days.
It can be extended to 5 days (by adding 2 days from the available Leave balance) only if the team member is
required to travel for more than 200 KM to meet the new member and make the necessary arrangements.

To avail the Paternity Leave the team member must have worked for at least 90 days. He has to provide a
minimum of 6 week notice to the respective Vertical Manager in the form of an email request detailing the
tentative leave plan.

5. Maternity Leave

All permanent female team members are entitled to maternity benefits at the time of pregnancy as per
Maternity Benefits Act 1961. Maternity Leave is granted to a married team member for up to two children only.
To avail the Maternity Leave the team member has to provide a minimum of 26 week notice to the respective
Process Manager and HR in the form of an email request detailing the tentative leave plan.
The leave shall be governed by the following conditions:

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• The total continuous leave period under this category shall be 26 weeks, of which not more than 8
weeks shall precede the date of her expected delivery.
•

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The team member seeking leave under this category should have completed at least 9 months with the
company before availing this leave category.
• The team member shall be entitled to her full salary as per regular payday policy of the company except
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for the reimbursement allowances (mobile, travel, etc.) when on maternity leave.
• A relevant certificate from a licensed Gynecologist & Obstetrician regarding the relevant dates shall be
required to be submitted to Human Resources for approval of leave.
• The team member on Maternity Leave shall also be required to inform, in writing, the HR department
regarding her rejoining date on completion of the leave period at least 15 days in advance, so that
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suitable steps could be taken to disassociate the temporary replacement taken during her absence.
• This leave can only be taken continuously. If the team member joins back before completing her
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maternity leave, the balance period automatically gets lapsed.

• The maternity leaves cannot be combined with any other category of leaves in the pre-natal period. In
post-natal period the team member has the discretion of combining Family Medical Leave* for which
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the team member has to provide the information to the management at least 30 days prior to
completion of Maternity Leave period.
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*The Family Medical leave would be leave without pay.

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6. Compensatory Leaves (Festival Floater)

Resources supporting overseas processes are given Company Holidays in line with their Process requirement
and are thus not liable to avail India specific holidays.

The only exception would be given for working on the India National Holidays i.e. Republic Day, January 26;
Independence Day, August 15 and Mahatma Gandhi Jayanti, October 2. Working these days would entitle a
team member to accrue a Compensatory off day.

Resources working in 24 X 7 Support Processes would accrue the Compensatory off day only if these days are
their regular working days and not their regular weekly days off.

Conditions to Use / Avail the festival Floater:

• To avail the festival floater a team member must apply at least 30 days in advance clearly stating that
 they wish to get this request considered as Festival Floater.
• This would be allowed strictly on first come basis and would be guided by the policy around allowing
only 10% of the total strength to take an off day across the floor.
• In the event a team member has availed his quota of the Festival Floater and applies for a leave on any
of the Festival Floater category days, wanting to use another category of leaves, he / she shall not be
given the preference over other team members wanting to apply for that day under Festival Floater
category, even if they apply before the other team member. In the event of a prior approval obtained
under such circumstances the approved leave is liable to be cancelled if any other team member wants
to apply for the same under festival floater.

7. Company Holidays 2021

Please see below for the Company Holidays which are granted based on the entity which a team member
supports.

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INDIA SALES TEAM INDIA SALES TEAM
Delhi - NCR Bangalore / Hyderabad
S.No. Holiday Date Day S.No. Holiday Date Day
1 New Year's Day 1-Jan-21 Friday 1 New Year's Day 1-Jan-21 Friday
2 Republic Day 26-Jan-21 Tuesday 2 Pongal 14-Jan-21 Thursday
3 Holi 29-Mar-21 Monday 3 Republic Day 26-Jan-21 Tuesday

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4 Id-ul-Fitr 14-May-21 Friday 4 Holi 29-Mar-21 Monday
5 Janmashtami 30-Aug-21 Monday 5 Ugadi/Gudi Padava 13-Apr-21 Tuesday
6 Dussehra 15-Oct-21 Friday 6 Id-ul-Fitr 14-May-21 Friday
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7 Diwali 4-Nov-21 Thursday 7 Ganesh Chaturthi 10-Sep-21 Friday
8 Govardhan Puja 5-Nov-21 Friday 8 Dussehra 15-Oct-21 Friday
9 Guru Nanak's Birthday 19-Nov-21 Friday 9 Karnataka Day 1-Nov-21 Monday
Floater Holiday (select any two from the list) 10 Diwali 4-Nov-21 Thursday
1 Good Friday 2-Apr-21 Friday Floater Holiday (select any one from the list)
2 Ram Navami 21-Apr-21 Wednesday 1 Good Friday 2-Apr-21 Friday
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3 Id-ul-Zuha 21-Jul-21 Wednesday 2 Id-ul-Zuha 21-Jul-21 Wednesday

4 Muharram 19-Aug-21 Thursday 3 Muharram 19-Aug-21 Thursday
5 Ganesh Chaturthi 10-Sep-21 Friday 4 Janmashtami 30-Aug-21 Monday
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INDIA SALES TEAM

Mumbai / Pune
S.No. Holiday Date Day
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1 New Year's Day 1-Jan-21 Friday

2 Republic Day 26-Jan-21 Tuesday
3 Holi 29-Mar-21 Monday
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4 Ugadi/Gudi Padava 13-Apr-21 Tuesday

5 Id-ul-Fitr 14-May-21 Friday
6 Janmashtami 30-Aug-21 Monday
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7 Ganesh Chaturthi 10-Sep-21 Friday

8 Dussehra 15-Oct-21 Friday
9 Diwali 4-Nov-21 Thursday
10 Govardhan Puja 5-Nov-21 Friday
Floater Holiday (select any one from the list)
1 Good Friday 2-Apr-21 Friday
2 Id-ul-Zuha 21-Jul-21 Wednesday
3 Muharram 19-Aug-21 Thursday
 US SUPPORT TEAM UK SUPPORT TEAM
Auburn Specific Holidays - 2021 UK Specific Holidays - 2021
S.No. Holiday Date Day S.No. Holiday Date Day
1 New Year's Day 1-Jan-21 Friday 1 New Year's Day 1-Jan-21 Friday
2 Memorial Day 31-May-21 Monday 2 Good Friday - Easter 2-Apr-21 Friday
3 Independence Day 5-Jul-21 Monday 3 Easter Monday 5-Apr-21 Monday
4 Labor Day 6-Sep-21 Monday 4 May Day Bank Holiday 3-May-21 Monday
5 Thanksgiving Day 25-Nov-21 Thursday 5 Spring Bank Holiday 31-May-21 Monday
6 Day After Thanksgiving 26-Nov-21 Friday 6 Summer Bank Holiday 30-Aug-21 Monday
7 Christmas Day Eve 24-Dec-21 Friday 7 Christmas Day 27-Dec-21 Monday
India Specific Holidays - 2021 8 Boxing Day 28-Dec-21 Tuesday
8 Republic Day 26-Jan-21 Tuesday India Specific Holidays - 2021
9 Diwali 4-Nov-21 Thursday 9 Republic Day 26-Jan-21 Tuesday
10 Diwali 4-Nov-21 Thursday

PROCEDURE FOR LEAVE APPLICATION

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Every team member is required to apply for the leaves through HR One only
http://hrone/zones/SelfService/Team member/Home
Leave once marked would be approved by your Reporting Manager -> HOD.

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Leaves not applied and approved thru the portal would be considered as Leaves without pay and be liable for
strict disciplinary action.
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PERIOD OF ACCOUNTING

All leaves shall be accounted for on a calendar year basis i.e. accrual and accounting starts with January 1 and
ends at December 31 of that year.
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Leave Carry Forward

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A Maximum of 15 leaves (Company Paid leaves) can be carried forward to the next calendar year. The Company
in alignment of its policies with the Global best practices will follow Use it or Lose it policy going forward.
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Compensatory offs cannot be carried forward to the next calendar year.

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Leave Encashment

The team member is entitled to leave encashment after completion of minimum 1 year of employment with the
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company. A maximum of 21 leaves (Company paid leaves) can be encashed and only at the time of disassociation
from the services.

Adjustment of Leave Balance against Notice Period

The accumulated leave balance in a team member’s account cannot be assumed as set off against the notice
period required to be served upon resignation from the organization. Waiving of Notice Period is solely at the
discretion of the organization. Any leave taken during the notice period will be considered as LWP (irrespective
of the nature/reason/approval of leave).