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Ashutosh1972
Hi,

A very very unique problem has come up in our company. One employee joined in Product team. Completed joining formalities, before getting appointment letter he resigned with immediate effect within 5 days of joining.

We have internally accepted his resignation and forwarded it to F&F settlement department. Though the resignation acceptance copy has not been sent to him but we wanted to sort it out amicably. Now to complete his full & final we need clearance certificate from all departments. We are continuously sending him mails to send us those documents so that we can complete the process and close his file but he's not responding to either emails or ph calls. We have internally calculated and found out that we owe him 5 days salary and since Appointment letter was not signed we can not ask him notice pay in lieu off. But that gentleman is not even ready to take his own 5 days's salary! god knows why. And not responding to us.

We have to close his file in order to comply with our internal audit, but he's not even ready to give us the all department clearance certificate to get his dues. And unless we get that clearance certificate we can not complete F&F.

What should we do now? Should we send him a legal notice? What should be the content when he doesn't owe us anything? Is this a gross misconduct? And if yes can we close this episode by not giving him the 5 days'salary and summarily terminating him because in normal circumstances we are bound to pay him.

What should I do, kindly suggest. This is a unique case which I have never faced in my career and personally talked to a few of my HR friends who also had no idea.

From India, Kolkata
Dinesh Divekar
7884

Dear Ashutosh,

You have magnified the problem disproportionately. Abandonment of employment immediately after joining is common across the industries and across the companies. You have sent him notices to report for duty or even collect his wages for the period he worked. If he refuses to take his wages, then be as it may. You may close his file, however, before the closure of his file, assign a task to someone from HR/Admin to take clearance from all the departments on his behalf. This will generate evidence that he owes no dues to the company.

If you wish to complete procedure legally also then you may order the enquiry to investigate the abandonment of his employment. As a punitive measure for abandonment, you may forfeit the wages for which he worked. This legal process will help you during inspection of the labour officer.

Those who abandon employment within few days of joining have fear that if they report to the company, it could land them in trouble. Out of this fear, they forego their wages, even if legally they were due to get the wages.

I have seen cases where companies retain 15 or even 30 days salary of the employee for the two years. Those who abandon the employment within this period obviously have to forego this salary. Notwithstanding this clause in the appointment letter, lured by better opportunity, workers foregone their legitimate dues and abandoned the employment. Compared to this, your problem is far more simple!

Thanks,

Dinesh Divekar

From India, Bangalore
Ashutosh1972
Dear Sir,
IT was not an abandonment. He called up one of the HR Managers and then resigned properly and internally we have accepted his resignation. So now we can not show it a case of job abandonment. So there is no question of internal inquiry and all that stuff.
We are ready for F&F and we owe him salary. But in order to do that we need clearance certificate. I had talked to our Country HR Head and he suggested me to take the clearance from all departments internally when that gentleman is not ready to cooperate. But the question is what's next. After deducting PF should we credit the rest of the amount to his salary account? Should we send him a cheque?
I was told that ''We have to pay him, have to give him 5 days' salary in order to close this chapter". But I fail to understand when he himself is not interested in getting the money why should we pay him?
Is there any other way out? How to close this file?

From India, Kolkata
Ashutosh1972
"If you wish to complete procedure legally also then you may order the enquiry to investigate the abandonment of his employment. As a punitive measure for abandonment, you may forfeit the wages for which he worked. This legal process will help you during inspection of the labour officer.

Those who abandon employment within few days of joining have fear that if they report to the company, it could land them in trouble. Out of this fear, they forego their wages, even if legally they were due to get the wages."

---------He put down his resignation on 5th day evening and mentioned the reason of leaving as "He thinks he will not be of any use in this products line, he doesn't feel confident". So what investigation are you talking about? And we have accepted his point of views and accepted the resignation eventually. So what legal process can we initiate now? Under these circumstances can we forfeit his wages? What should be the ground. Internally we have discussed and the problem is we are not even asking him to report to office. Only asking him to courier the 2 pages of clearance letter duly signed and then rest of things will be taken care of internally. And we will clear his dues. But he is not even sending those two papers that we have mailed. So there is no possibility here of him being land in trouble if he reports to office. We are not even asking him to do that.

Now for internal and external audit purpose I am told that we have to pay him to close his file. And that doesn't make sense to me when he himself is not interested and cooperating on getting his dues.

Isn't it complex?

From India, Kolkata
Glidor
632

make appropriation of "salary payable" account, and leave it, this will get allowed expenditure under income tax also,

Shrikant_pra
264

It will have to be treated as unpaid salary of 5 days. You have already communicated to him about the salary. Keep it with you for 3 months and if state welfare fund act is applicable to your org then remit the said amount with welfare commissioner there after.
From India, Mumbai
Shrikant_pra
264

Come out if your internal procedures as the fact is he had worked for 5 days.
From India, Mumbai
Ashutosh1972
Dear Seniors,

Thank you very much for your invaluable suggestions. But I guess the things are getting murkier day by day.

Recently we have got substantial proofs that he - the person concerned had concealed his last employment (which was a month) and then resigned there with immediate effect and then came and joined our organization, resigned here with immediate effect and then joined back the same previous organization where who had been working for a month just prior to join us.

And guess what neither do we knew about it nor does his current employer.

And we are definitely planning to make some legal suit, but I don't think it will come under Dual Employment because on any day he didn't work with two companies simultaneously. However his present company didn't accept his resignation then and carried him on their master roll.

But again that's their fault, not the employee's I guess, because he can easily say that he had resigned will immediate effect before joining us. So officially the relationship was presumed to be over.

It's getting very complex. Though we are absolutely ready to go ahead and take some strict legal action against the person concerned but I don't know what kind of legal steps we can take and I have to meet our legal team on coming Tuesday. So before that I wanted to know the gravity of the situation and if possible some solution from HR and Legal perspective. Cal we file some cases under IPC? That was a suggestion given to me by my line manager. He and the management want to send a strong msg to every corner. Once again awaiting your advice.

Your response are most welcome.

P.S. He didn't sign appointment letter with us, but completed joining formalities and gave his attendance for those 5 days.

From India, Kolkata
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