Home breaks in blocks
A pattern many EPC companies use is a nine-day home break every three to four months: two travel days marked on duty, one weekly off and six days of earned leave. Three such breaks use 18 days of earned leave in a year, which matches an accrual of 1.5 days a month. Let casual and earned leave be taken together for home breaks, and give earned leave a notice period long enough to book trains, since a sleeper berth from Jodhpur to Patna disappears weeks ahead.
Before approving a home break, the site in-charge opens the site's leave calendar, which marks approved and pending requests differently, and makes sure no more than one of the three electricians on a block is away in the same week. Two absent electricians can stop a whole block's cable termination.
The commissioning freeze
In the last six weeks before the commissioning date, most project teams pause planned leave, keeping sick and emergency leave open. Announce the freeze window when the project schedule is fixed, not a week before it starts, and ask everyone to take a home break just before it. Weekly offs worked during the push earn comp-off credits from HR, with an expiry long enough to be used in the month after commissioning. People who give up leave for a deadline remember whether the company kept its word afterwards.
Festivals far from home
A crew at a Rajasthan site may include electricians from Bihar, fitters from Odisha and engineers from Kerala. Chhath, Durga Puja and Onam fall at different times, so a festival rotation spreads the absences: each person gets one festival at home each year, agreed in advance. Where the project schedule allows, a short site shutdown for Diwali lets most of the crew travel together, and those who stay earn comp-off.
Sick days at a remote camp
The nearest hospital may be two hours away, so a rule demanding a doctor's certificate after two days of sick leave needs a site-level answer. Accept a note from the site medical officer or first aid centre, and arrange transport to a clinic for anything serious. Heat illness in summer is a real risk: a worker sent back to camp with heat exhaustion should get sick leave without argument, and the site should review its work timings the same week.
How to set it up in ZeniaHR
- Set the quotas on the default CL, EL and SL types, leaving CL and EL free to be combined for home breaks.
- Give earned leave a notice period of two to three weeks so site staff can book travel for home breaks.
- Ask for a medical note on sick leave beyond two days, and let a note from the site medical officer count.
- Have HR credit comp-off for weekly offs worked in the commissioning push, with an expiry that runs past the commissioning date.
- Make the site in-charge the first approver with HR second, and publish the commissioning freeze on the Company Wall to that site.
Read more about leave management in ZeniaHR.
Roles this applies to
See leave management for solar and energy companies in a demo
We set up your locations, shifts and rules on a video call and show it running for your team. Free for your first 50 employees.
Book a free demoSee pricingFrequently asked questions
How does home leave work for staff at remote solar sites?
Most companies give a home break every few months: travel days marked on duty, a weekly off and several days of earned leave. Three nine-day breaks a year, each using six days of earned leave, match an accrual of 1.5 days a month. Plan breaks so no two people from the same skill are away together.
Can a solar company pause leave before commissioning?
Many project teams pause planned leave in the final weeks before commissioning, while keeping sick and emergency leave open. Write it into the leave policy, announce the window as soon as the schedule is fixed, and encourage home breaks just before it starts.
Are travel days to and from site counted as leave?
They should not be. Travel days to a remote site are part of the job, so record them as on duty days approved by the site in-charge and HR. Only the days actually spent at home are charged as leave.