Question 01

Draw a policy statement regarding vacations, sick leave and paid days off for
Carter Cleaning Center.

Answer 01

Presently, Carter Cleaning Company does not have any consistent and well defined
policy regarding vacations, sick leave and paid days off. Many of the recent decisions
regarding these benefits were contradictory & unfair in nature, as well as embarrassing
for the management to some extent. The policy should be a consistent, plausible and
unbiased one, which is able to convey a message of fairness regarding benefit plans. A
policy statement is drawn here:

Vacations
Annual leave
The leave entitlement of employees shall be as follows:
Those with ten years or more continuous service in the Company24 working days
per year excluding public holidays.
Those with five years continuous service but less than ten years in the Company
20 working days per year excluding public holidays.
Those with one year or more but less than five years continuous service in the
Company 18 working days per year excluding public holidays.

Leave Encashment
Earned leave can be accumulated from year to year, up to a maximum of 60 working
days at any given time. Any leaves over and above 15 can be claimed for encashment.
Earned leave payment would be calculated as per the current Basic salary.

Sick Leaves
Medical Leave
Any employee, after examination by and on the recommendation of the Company
doctors, or a Government medical officer in an emergency when Company doctors are
not available, is eligible for such paid medical leave not exceeding in the aggregate
Fourteen days in each calendar year if he/she is not hospitalized; or suffering from a
chronic or prolong illness, tuberculosis or occupational disease or an injury arising
out of and in the course of his employment.
 Six months in each calendar year if he is - hospitalized; or suffering from a chronic or
prolong illness, an occupational disease or an injury arising out of and in the course
of his employment or certified by the Company doctors as requiring hospitalization.

Maternity Leave
Any female employee is eligible for maternity leave of 180 days. During maternity leave,
she will receive Basic Salary + House Rent + Medical Allowance only. Absence from
work due to miscarriage or any other illness arising out of pregnancy will not be
considered as maternity leave. But it will considered under medical leave.

Paternity Leave
Any male employee is eligible for paternity leave of 14 days.

Paid days off

Matrimonial Leave
A staff marrying for the first time whilst in the service of the company shall be entitled to
5 (five) working days matrimonial leave.

No Pay Leave
Staff may apply for no pay leave on compassionate grounds and the Management shall
sympathetically consider such application. Other applications for no pay leave in
exceptional circumstances shall be considered on their merits.

Day Off for Public Holiday or Weekend

A staff who is required to work on a public holiday is not eligible to receive public holiday
pay but shall be given day off in lieu of holiday duty. In that case he/she has to fill up the
day off form and approved by Head of Departments.
Question 02
What would you tell Jennifer are the advantages and disadvantages to Carter
Cleaning Centers of providing its employee with health, hospitalization and life
insurance programs?

Answer 02

For any business, big or small, benefits serve as a crucial part of employees
remuneration package. In fact, employees look forward to health care benefits the most,
coupled with holidays and monetary perks. Therefore, it makes sense for business
owners to give serious thought to offering health benefits. Not only does this work in the
employees favor, but it also helps employers attract and retain high-performing staff
and avoid exorbitant expenses in the long run.

Attract and retain the most qualified employees: Whether health insurance is
absolutely necessary to attract and retain the most qualified employees will depend
upon factors such as whether your competitors or other similarly sized employers in
your area are offering health insurance.
Gain tax advantages: You can offer employees something that increases their
compensation package and yet allows you an income tax deduction for the
contribution, so that your out-of-pocket cost is less than the value of the benefit to
the employee.

Offer employees group purchasing power: Even if you decide not to contribute
anything toward your employees' health insurance, you can offer them the
opportunity to obtain group rates through your business.

Ensure the wellness of your workers: Insurance plans offer preventative care that
can keep employees healthy and working. If employees don't get preventative care
and yearly physicals (which they might not do if they don't have insurance), you
could end up having more employees out for long periods of time with serious
illnesses.

There is a downside to offer health benefits, too. Some of the cons of offering health
benefits are:
 The costs. Health care costs have risen enormously in recent years. As a result, not
only are the costs draining valuable resources from many small employers, the
uncertainty makes financial planning extremely difficult.

The sometimes tense business of cost-sharing with employees. There is a way

for a small employer to control costs and return certainty to the process: push any
additional costs on to employees. While that may solve the financial problems, it
creates many others. Even if you don't want to push all the costs on to employees,
pushing some of the costs on to them is inevitable.

The administrative hassles. Even though the insurance company from whom you
purchase the health insurance will usually act as plan administrator, you will have to
choose the insurer and then spend part of your time filling out forms, remitting
premiums, and acting as intermediary between employee and insurer, among many
other tasks.

The potential liability. The potential for liability for selecting a health care provider
that commits malpractice on an employee does exist. While this risk is small and
should not be the driving reason behind a decision not to offer health insurance, you
should be aware that several employers have been sued by their employees for
what they contend was their employer's carelessness in selecting a provider.

However, generalizing is not intended. Evidently, thee best practice is that the employer
provides an employee with an option to design his/her own contributions to suit their
requirements after fulfilling the legal aspects of the organization because in some
countries companies are bound to provide insurance policies to its employees
constituting a certain percentage of their income.
Question 03
Would you advise establishing some type of day care center for the Carter
Cleaning employees? Why or Why not?
Answer 03
The relevance of day care service cannot be overemphasized, so I would definitely
advise to provide this service for Carter Cleaning employees. But, instead of setting up a
day care center of its own, I rather would advocate an alternative approach; Carter
cleaning Company can look for a licensed day care provider that would be willing to
offer a discount to Carter employees. At initial stage, the idea of taking the whole matter
into own hands, management should consider providing subsidized childcare incentives.
Later when the organization grows in terms of employees and the management feels
the need, the company could consider setting up their own day care centre.

Employee Benefits
Workplace day care is an important benefit for many employees, allowing them to
spend more time with their children during the workday. Some on-site programs
allow employees to spend lunch and breaks with their children or for new mothers to
pop in and breastfeed. Parents can travel to and from work with their children,
increasing the amount of time they spend together. Workplace day care also
decreases anxiety for some parents, improving their ability to concentrate on their
jobs. This makes them tension and hassle free.
Company Benefits
Workplace day care can improve employee morale and lower absenteeism and
turnover because fewer employees need to take time off to look after their children.
This leads to lower company costs. Another big savings is realized in bringing new
mothers back to work sooner, allowing companies to save in hiring and training
replacements. This can increase efficiency and productivity of Carter Cleaning
Center.
------------ X ------------