Dear All,

I am working as an HR Manager at professional services firms in F&A domain.

One of our employee (Mr. ABC) working in a responsible position in the IT department did not report to work for 3 consecutive working days & was on unauthorized leave. He was not available on his contact number either. Later we asked one of our employees who stay near his house to pay a visit & see if all is fine at the employee’s end. This employee who visited his house informed us that Mr. ABC is not well.

The next day Mr. ABC gave us a call & informed that he was not able to come to work as he was not well & said that he would report to duty next day. He came to work next day but again took a half day & went home. He has not come to office after that & has neither informed anyone at company. We tried calling him but his cell is switched off.

We later through a trusted source got to know that Mr. ABC is not going to join back & is planning to abscond as he has some problems in his personal life. But he has not informed us yet about this decision.

We are now in a fix because as Mr. ABC holds a very responsible position in the IT department & his absence from work is affecting the work. We would like to have replacement for him.

But I do understand that before we do this I need to have a voluntary resignation form Mr. ABC or we need to terminate his service. Can you please let me know from a legal perspective what should be the time interval between issuing a warning letter through a Registered AD/Under Certificate Posting to him & issuing a service termination letter?

I would like to have your suggestions with regards to a situation above.


Regards,
Yash

Normally, before any action is initiated against an employee, he shall be given a reasonable time. This depends upon the situation. It may be one week or two weeks and even one month. An abconding employee may be summoned to give explanation within a week's time. That is enough. Since he is holding a responsible position which requires immediate replacement to run the business, you can proceed with the disciplinary action without any further lapse of time. My personal view on such action is that I will tolerate negligences of shop floor workers or employees holding less responsibilities, but I will not tolerate the negligences and lapses of those who are holding higher responsibilities.(The policy may be just reverse for many organisations which protect Managers but fire workers for silly matters- I humbly request not to raise issues on my statement)

For your ready reference I am attaching a PPt on the general procedures to be followed while conducting a disciplinary action.

Regards,
Alok

Attached Files

DISCIPLINARY ACTION.zip (47.5 KB, 6 views)