Govt, private employees to get paid leave on by-election date: ECI

New Delhi/Bhubaneswar: The Election Commission of India (ECI) has written to the by-poll-bound State governments to give paid leave to both the government and private employees on the day of the by-election on December 5.

Apart from Odisha’s Padampur, six assembly Constituencies in other States (Rajasthan, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, and Uttar Pradesh) to go to poll on December 5. The by-election will also be held in one Parliamentary Constituency of Uttar Pradesh on same date.

“Section 135-B of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 provides for the grant of paid holiday to the employees,” stated the ECI in a letter to the chief secretaries and chief electoral officers of the above mentioned states.

“Every person employed in any business, trade, industrial undertaking or any other establishment and entitled to vote at election to the House of the People or the Legislative Assembly of a State shall, on the day of poll, be granted a holiday,” the letter read.

The ECI further stated that no deduction or abatement of the wages of any such person shall be made on account of a holiday having been granted in accordance with sub-section (1) and if such person is employed on the basis that he would not ordinarily receive wages for such a day, he shall nonetheless be paid for such day the wages he would have drawn had not a holiday been granted to him on that day.

If an employer contravenes the provisions, then such employer shall be punishable with fine, it added.

However, the section is not applicable in case of an elector whose absence may cause danger or substantial loss in respect of the employment in which he is engaged, the letter clarified.

The daily wage, casual workers are also entitled for a holiday and wages on poll day as provided in section 135B of the RP Act, 1951, the Commission said.