These days when companies are not doing well they sack the employee without giving any reason and at most give compensation as per terms & conditions of the employment letter. Normally this may range from 1 month salary to 3 months salary. But finding a job in today market is very difficult and compensation of 3 months is nothing as compared to difficulties faced by such person. This is general practice for removing middle level executives as they are not governed by labour laws. Is this justifiable and can an employee given pink slip without any legitimate reason. What is the stand of Law? more
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Mr. Dhingra, Your friend could have written resigned under protest. The issue of non performance can also be scrutinise by the court if that is one of the stand taken by the company. If Employee is fine with his performance in all fairness, he can hold the company guilty in court. Whoever does wrong he can't be Scott free. Profit and loss statement is not the performance of a single employee of an organisation. Its not trouble going to court, actually you choose a lawyer cheap and best, not a law firm, that is why trouble comes to litigant. Actually every one compromise. A employee also compromises when he receives employment/appointment letter. He doesn't actually under stand or care, whats written in the appointment letter. He reads only compensation packages and be happy. Does any employee in India discuss his appointment letter with a Legal consultant and try to understand the implication of the appointment letter as soon as he receives the appointment letter. He just compare the hike. Do you know that appointment letter is a contract? If something impossible is written in the same Force majeure principle is applicable or the contract is voidable. Taking an employer to court is paving the way for the future employee as well. Working condition can change and it may be regulated by the court or authorities. Scaring some one from trouble doesn't give the solution of a persisting problems. Performance is the contribution of each employee of the organisation. Meeting the targets depends upon so many factors. There are so many things which cant be written here. However if you want can discuss with me on 9312226308. more
Jun 27
In the situation where there is no prior input about lower performance and employee has not resigned, there is definitely possibility of taking employer to court. Appropriate grounds will have to be defined by attorney. But keep in mind that even if company is forced to take employee back, from this point onwards there will be impossible to meet targets given and all kind of hurdles created to set the person for failure. At the end of the day, it is a profit and loss statement that a person has to create to define if taking employer to court to force them for continued employment is worth the trouble that will surely be forthcoming. more
Jun 26
Dear Mr Mittal, What you said is very true, when employee faces termination he is ready to give resignation letter on his own and thus it ensures that employee cannot take any legal resource. But what if he is able to sustain pressure of not giving resignation and ask company to terminate him. Can company terminate him. Also recently it happened with one of my friend whom company asked to give resignation or face termination. The reason assigned was not meeting his targets. But through out the year there was no communication in any form regarding company unhappiness with his below par performance and suddenly he was asked to leave. This came as surprise to all of us as his non performance was never discussed in any of target reviews. What should one do in such situations. more
Jun 26
One more point - usually when such layoff happen, companies get the resignation letter signed by the employee. If that is indeed the case with you, the legal position available shrinks further. more
Jun 26
A few comments on the basis of my experience in private industry. "Usually" when the companies terminate anybody's employment, they create grounds by terming person as low performer and create required evidence for that purpose. Companies have annual performance appraisal system and usually form bell-curve, meaning there will always be a certain percentage of people termed as low performer. Then depending upon the system, such people may be put on performance improvement path or not. If a person has been rated low performer and then subsequently laid off after 3-4 month period, his chances of being able to effectively challenge that decision in court are really low, especially if that is not one-off case and the company has laid off many such persons. This methodology is especially true of knowledge industry like IT industry. On the other hand if no such process has been followed and it is simply a lay-off with one month salary without giving any reasons, then what Mr. Kumar said becomes very relevant. In that situation there is potential opportunity for such employee to take employer to court, but keeping in mind that in future his job opportunities in industry will shrink since nobody will like to hire such a person. more
Jun 26
