Government employees can take child care leave without sacrificing paid leaves

There’s good news for women government employees. They can now avail 730 days of child care leave (CCL) despite having a bagful of earned leaves.

Earlier, mothers without earned leave could alone avail full 730 days of CCL during their entire tenure.

This was leading to considerable anguish among women government servants.

The leave, which is treated like an earned leave, can be availed by women with children aged less than 18 years.

A memorandum issued in 2008 by the department of personnel under the prime minister had put the condition that CCL can be availed only if an employee has no earned leave left.  The government had also clarified in the memorandum that the leave may not be granted in more than three spells in a calendar year and for less than 15 days at a time.

Such leave can be granted to a probationer in extreme situations, but only if the sanctioning authority is fully satisfied..

“These orders take effect from September 1, 2008. Earned leave, if any, availed by women employees before availing CCL subsequent to the issue of the [earlier memo] may be adjusted against CCL, if so requested by the employee,” the new memorandum says.