Kerala government enforces biometric attendance for secretariat employees

Biometric attendance
Although previous circulars had made punching compulsory, many offices in the Secretariat have failed to implement the rule. Creative: Manorama

A fresh circular has been issued, making biometric punching mandatory for all employees, except the Chief Secretary. Although previous circulars had made punching compulsory, many offices in the Secretariat have failed to implement the rule. The new circular lists the Secretariat's working hours and admissible leaves, and mentions that punching need not be done on occasions when the machine malfunctions.

The circular includes the following directions: 
1)
The Secretariat's working hours will be from 10:15 am to 5:15 pm Half a day will be calculated for the periods between 10:15 am and 1:15 pm, and 2 pm and 5:15 pm.

Employees should punch in and out, with the first and last punches each day being considered for calculating attendance.
2) Those who work full-time outside the Secretariat should not punch in, and employees working on daily wage, contract, and temporary basis need not punch in either.
3) Those who have duties outside the Secretariat until noon should punch in before 2 pm.
4) There will be a grace period of 300 minutes each month for arriving late or leaving early. However, employees should not use more than one hour from this on a single day. The grace period allowed is between 10:15 am and 11:15 am, and between 4:15 pm and 5:15 pm.
5) If employees do not have enough grace time in their accounts and punch in between 11:15 am and 2 pm but punch out at 5:15 pm, it will be considered as half-day leave. Similarly, if one punches in before 10:15 am but punches out between 1:15 pm and 4:15 pm, it will be considered as half-day leave.
6) Employees who work overtime of 10 hours per month will be given a day's compensatory leave. Half-pay leave, commuted leave, and earned leave will be allowed based on the credits available in the employees' accounts.

Only casual leave can be clubbed with compensatory leave.
7) One cannot apply for casual leave along with half-pay leave, commuted leave, and earned leave.

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