What exactly are the restricted holidays that applies to privately owned firms as well??
From India, Noida
Restricted holidays are the limited no. of holidays granted to employees on religious and festive occasions of their choice in a calendar year over and above the approved festival holidays.
Religious ceremonies on certain auspicious days and festivals are inevitable in social life across the world. Particularly, in a vast country like India which has many religions and ethnic groups, such occasions are too many. Therefore, it will not be possible for any employer, whether it be the Government or a Private Enterprise to grant holidays to all the employees or keep the establishment closed on all such occasions. That is why certain limited no. of days are declared to be statutory national and festival holidays. Since festivals are closely associated with the religious and social sentiments of the employees depending both on their personal religions and nativity, some more occasions at the choice of the individual employees are granted to them with restrictions on their number in a calendar year.

From India, Salem
Dear friend,
Let me add to what Mr Umakanthan M has said.
In the government sector, there are two types of holidays, closed and restricted. On the closed holidays the offices remain closed except for emergency staff. In contrast, on restricted holidays, the offices remained opened. However, whether to avail of this holiday or not is individual employee's call. The benefit of restricted holiday is that it maintains the continuity of the work and unlike closed holidays, the entire office is not closed.
At the beginning of the calendar years, government offices the list of closed and restricted holidays. However, most of the time, the closed holidays are declared depending on the regional and local requirements. Now take the case of Punjab. State or Central government may not give closed holiday on Ugadi which is celebrated on wider scale in south India. But what about a south Indian working in Punjab? The employee may take restricted holiday and celebrate the Ugadi.
I don't know whether any change has taken place but earlier those who worked in central government services were authorised to take two restricted holidays. While availing of the restricted holidays, employee need not be from that cast, creed, religion etc. for which the restricted holiday is declared.
As far as the private enterprises is concerned, most of the state governments in India have exclusive act about state and national holidays. However, this list may not have provision of the resticted holidays. Employers are given freedom to decide the declaration of holidays except for national holidays like Republic Day.
In the last 20-25 years, in the post-liberalisation era, lot of inter-state movement has happened. Therefore, to allow the employees who are not from that state to celebrate the holidays as per their culture, few big companies and MNCs have introduced the concept of restricted holidays in their company. In few companies, term "Floating Holiday" is used instead of restricted holiday.
Concept of restricted holiday is purely initiative of the employer and there are no provision related to this in either shops and establishment act factories act. It can be considered as welfare measure also.
Thanks,
Dinesh Divekar

From India, Bangalore
All private firms....are covered under National and Festival Holidays Act. This does not provide for any Restricted Hoilday. T Sivasankaran
From India, Chennai
HROne
17

Restricted holidays, in simpler words, are optional holidays. It completely depends on an employee if s/he wants to avail it.

From New year to Chhat Puja, there are more than 30 restricted holidays in India. In that case, if private companies consider every restricted holiday, then they will have to shut down their workplaces most of the time. Due to the same, private firms select a few restricted holidays in a year. Now, these holidays differ from company to company. Some of the restricted holidays observed by most private firms are Bhai Duj, Dussehra, and Raksha Bandhan.

Hope it helps.

From India, Noida
Dear Colleague,
As rightly guided by the Colleagues, lot of insights shared for new learning on the concept of " Restricted Holiday"

The concept of " Restricted Holiday" was not famous in Private Owned Companies a decade ago. It was present in Public Sectors like Bank and Financial Services etc. The Purpose of Restricted holiday is more from Cultural Perspective. Slowly, everywhere organizations gone cross cultural due to the dynamics of multi locational business entities. Thus the growth and expansion into new locations as well as engaging talents from different parts of the country made a work place with " Cross Cultural Talents" . Here there is a need to practice "Restricted Holidays" more from the perspective of Employee Engagement and satisfaction and less from Legal Requirements.

National and Festival Holidays are governed by Law but Restricted holiday is voluntary in nature declared by the Employer. Some organizations declare National and Festival Holidays as per the list of holidays declared by Appropriate Government. Over and above they declare few days as Restricted Holidays in Private Sector. On such days the organization will function as usual and sect of people who are predominantly practice certain custom and culture will avail holiday with salary on that day on account of few selected festivals which majority of employees will cherish

It is indeed a good practice
All the Best, God Bless,
Dr.P.SIVAKUMAR
Doctor Siva Global HR
Tamil Nadu

From India, Chennai
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