Employee Resigned and Rejoined: Should I Pay for the Weekend Days Off?

Hello All, :)

One of my employees resigned on 2nd August 2008; it was a Saturday, so it was a holiday for us. Now, after convincing the employee, he agreed to take the resignation back and emailed that he wants to continue on 5th August 2008. Now everything is fine. I considered those days in which he was absent as without pay. That means I deducted salary for 2nd, 3rd, and 4th August 2008, as he rejoined on 5th August 2008.

Now, he was arguing that he should get the salary for 2nd and 3rd as those were off for us, and as we have not sent any acceptance for his resignation also. As per my views, his salary should be deducted from the period he resigned to the period he joined. Please clarify as out of 3 days, 2 were weekly off. So, should I pay him for those 2 days or not. :confused:

Waiting for a prompt response from your side. :)

Regards, Shweta Swarnkar

Sure, here is the corrected version of the user's input:

"Look buddy, I can explain more and more, but just one piece of advice: he needs to be paid for those two days, that's all. Thanks."

Hi Shweta,

You have to pay for those two days because you have not accepted his resignation letter. That means he is still with your company during those days.

Hi Shweta,

If you do not have an ACCEPTED signature from the management on his resignation letter, then you need to pay him.

Geetha

Yes, the employee is eligible for two days off and not eligible for wages for one day.

Resignation is a way of terminating the contract of service by the employee, similar to termination of service by the employer. Neither of them requires or needs consent or acceptance from the other party. Resignation is essentially an offer made by the employee to the employer to leave the service and does not become a termination until it is accepted by the employer. It is, however, up to the employee to withdraw or revoke the offer before it is accepted. Any revocation or withdrawal must be communicated before the acceptance of the resignation.

In this case, the management has not accepted the resignation before the employee withdrew it.

Hope the above clarifies.

Hi Shweta,

I think you have to pay the salary for the two days because the resignation has not been accepted by the company, so he was your employee at that point of time.

Warm Regards,
Yukti

I am not sure what made you think that you should deduct his salary. I think it's a normal case of you going for the weekend on Friday evening and joining back on Monday. If he has worked until Friday, August 1st, and withdrew his resignation before August 4th and joined back on Monday, why should you be deducting his salary? You should be paying him his full salary without any deduction.

Thanks.

You have given two days' salary because the management is still unaware of his resignation. You have not forwarded his resignation letter, and it is not approved by your management. So, he is still in the job.

Hi Shweta,

Having had a fair bit of exposure in Asia and now in India, I fail to understand the mode of resignation as I have always only accepted that resignations must be officially signed. I would not, in any way, accept any other form of communication. Whatever the case may be, you have agreed that the incumbent will withdraw his resignation. This means there is a continuation of service. However, I would suggest that for the days where he was not gainfully employed, it should be considered as no pay leave or deducted from his annual leave, which is within your contractual rights. If you value the person, this should be reviewed differently, where the person is given time off to reconsider his decision.

Hi Shweta,

You should pay him for 3 days (mold your policies if it doesn't allow you to do so). As his resignation was not accepted, it can be considered that he is continuing his old job and can be treated as leave. More than this, you should acknowledge him as he has changed his mind and decided to continue his current employment. It can be a good example for other employees of your organization too if you are able to pitch it in a positive way.

Hi, I feel Ms. Shweta is right because you did not provide any relieving or acceptance letter to him. So, you should pay.

Hi Shweta,

Since his resignation was not accepted, or even if it had been accepted but until he is not relieved, you need to pay him for holidays. Just by submitting a resignation to the Management, employment does not come to an end.

Regards,
Akhouri Nishant

Hi Shweta,

He needs to be paid because you have not completed the relieving formalities. If you do not want to pay, it means you have to get him rejoined and complete all joining formalities after relieving formalities.

The things are very clear; if the resignation was not accepted, he should be paid. If it was accepted, provide a new joining letter and start the payment from the new joining date.

Hope it is clear now.

Dear Sweta,

Firstly, there is a common misconception that the employer must accept the resignation letter for it to take effect. The actual law states that the resignation letter needs acceptance only if there is a specific rule requiring it; otherwise, the submission of the resignation letter and its mere receipt are sufficient.

In your situation, if you can demonstrate that the letter was stamped from your office, it is adequate for the salary deduction to occur.

The assertion made by Madhukar that "resignation is an offer" is incorrect. Resignation constitutes the performance of the contract as it is a condition of the contract of service.

Regards,
Saikat Dhar
saikatdhar.advocate@gmail.com

Hi Saikat,

As far as I know, until and unless the employee is relieved or terminated, the contract of employment does not come to an end. Here, specifically, the employee has joined back on Monday. So his services are still continued. I strongly feel that salary can't be deducted in this case.

Regards,

Hi Shwetha,

You have to pay his salary for those days he was absent, as there is no confirmation sent to him regarding the acceptance of his resignation.

Regards,
Vamsidhar R

Hi,

After resignation, the employee should attend his duty until the time he was relieved. Since he did not attend, he should not be paid.

Hi,

You should pay him if his resignation has not been accepted by the management. But you should also check if he is eligible for such leave or not. If he is not eligible for any leaves, then you will have to deduct salary for those days by informing him of the same.

Sree
UAE

Hi,

If he has leave balance, then you can adjust it in his leave balance and pay him for those two days. If he doesn't have leave balance, then it will be considered as Loss of Pay (LOP). It is not mandatory that you should pay.

Whether he has resigned or not resigned, this will be my view.

Please revert back if you need any clarifications.

Regards,
RAM

Hi,

As his resignation was under the process of management and was not accepted, and the management tried to convince the employee not to resign, he should be paid. Also, in the attendance records, he is not shown as absent. Therefore, he should be paid.

Regards,

Deepak Kr. Srivastava
Kanpur, UP
09336154871

Dear Shweta,

You definitely need to pay him as there is no break in the service since he had taken back his letter of resignation.

Regards,
Srinivasan

It is agreed that he has resigned. However, you have convinced him to stay back instead of letting him go. Therefore, you may pay his salary. If he was absent from the workplace for the period of August 2-4 on his own accord, then his leave balance could be adjusted instead of deducting his salary, considering he is a permanent employee. To some extent, you should show kindness.

Hi Shwetha,

The point here is whether he has taken back his resignation on his own or with peer pressure from your end, i.e., from the company. If he has taken it back on his own, there is no need to pay for the 2 days, even if they were general holidays. If he has taken it back due to pressure from the company, then he has to be paid. Moreover, the simple advice is to consider those two days as leave and just leave.

An important aspect is why he first resigned. Please check whether he was looking for other options. Based on this, you can decide.

Prasanna Kumar
Email: gvprasanna11@gmail.com

Also, if you have accepted the resignation, he must have been serving the notice period, and the employees get paid until the last working day.

Dear Shewta,

Though your query doesn't give full facts of the case, yet based on what you have written, I assume that (1) his resignation dated 2nd August was not accepted by the company, and no formal acceptance of the resignation in writing was conveyed back to him. He was not relieved from services on 2nd August. (2) Subsequent to your persuasion, he withdrew his resignation and conveyed back to you about it on 5th August.

Under these circumstances, he was in the services of the company without any break, and you cannot deduct any salary for the intervening days mentioned by you.

Mohan.

Hi Shweta,

As the 2nd and 3rd were weekly offs, that employee is eligible for two days' pay and not eligible for the 4th if he has not taken any leave.

Regards,
Mrugesh

Hello,

In my opinion, you should also pay the concerned employee as he remains an employee of your company until he gets his resignation approved.

Thanks

Shweta,

Of course, you should pay. He has the right to earn wages for the days he was still on the payroll as the resignation was not accepted. Secondly, as an HR person, you should have paid him without creating further fuss since you were already treading on sensitive grounds. He was obviously an agitated employee since he had put in the resignation. I assume he must have been an important employee because you all tried to retain him. Then why rake up the dissatisfaction further if you really valued this person. If he is not worth waiving 2 days off for him, rightfully or not, then why did you attempt to keep him in the organization? As an HR person, you have to be sensitive towards such issues. Sometimes it may mean that you have to bend the rules a bit to maintain peace and order.

Renu

The person resigned on the 2nd. It was a holiday for the 2nd and 3rd. As per the statement, he rejoined only on the 5th. So the company has the right to cut the salary for the 4th and not for the 2nd and 3rd being holidays. Since the letter has not been accepted, the resignation letter does not have any meaning. However, since the person did not report for duty on the 4th, the salary for the 4th should be cut or a leave should be reduced in this case.

Dear Mr. S. Swarnkar,

You need to pay him for all days. He submitted his resignation, but it was not accepted by the management, and they convinced him to withdraw his resignation, so it does not constitute reemployment. There is no break in his employment with your company, so he needs to be paid for his weekly offs and other leave.

Warm regards,
Shweta

There is no question of not paying him - you have to pay. He was definitely an active employee of your company during that period, whether his resignation was accepted or not. He has every right to sue you if you withdraw his payment.

Yes, you have to pay for all the days because your management is only trying to convince the employees to come back. Please treat this as a special case and pay for all the days; otherwise, the employee might get upset if you deduct his salary. This could lead him to reconsider his resignation.

If you feel that the employee is valuable to your company, go ahead and pay for all the days.

Thanks,
Radhisaran

Hello Shweta,

As per my views, until and unless the employer accepts the resignation, the process is incomplete, and you cannot treat him as a resigned employee. In the same case, if you have accepted the resignation and issued the release letter to him and after that if he decided to join again, then you could have treated the same as a break in service. But in this particular case, as you have not accepted his resignation, you cannot treat this as a break in service, so it is improper to deduct his salary. In this case, I feel you have to treat 2nd and 3rd as off days, and 4th August should be considered as a leave day provided he submits a leave application.

So, I don't think that it is a suitable decision to deduct his salary, and somehow it is a very demotivating practice.

Regards,

Saptarshi Dasgupta

Asst. Manager-HR

Transafe Services Ltd.

Hi, you should pay him.

I hope your query has been cleared with our friend's explanation.

Best regards,

Ishrat Khan

Hi Shwetha,

The employee has to be paid for all three days as he has rejoined, and for those two days, everyone else is also getting paid.

Regards,
Aruna

Hi,

You consider the particular person as a valuable employee and tried to retain him. If you cut his salary for these 2 days, that may be enough reason for him to reconsider his decision, and it will ultimately prove to be bad for you. If you don't pay for those days, he will be losing that money because he revoked his earlier decision listening to your words. This is from the employee's perspective. You can either ignore it as he has not submitted the resignation, and hence there is no question of deducting the salary, or you can consider those days as leave, in case you still can't consider it so. But anyway, if you deduct the salary for those 2 days, it will go against you ultimately.

Sandeep :)

It is a question of legal nitty-gritty versus sagacity of management. If you persuaded him to take back his resignation and restored his continuity of service, the question of whether it should be leave without pay or not becomes a minor issue. Since you are not issuing a fresh appointment letter, you may as well consider his leave as paid leave to build the bridges (small price) which had broken.

Hi Shwetha,

In this case, the employee's resignation is not accepted by the management, and at the same time, he was asked to continue. Your contention of rejoining does not apply in this case. Hence, the days deducted should be paid. Hope the above clarifies.

Regards,
Venkat

Dear Sweta,

Since you have accepted the proposal of this employee to continue in your company, it is treated as continuous service without a break. Therefore, you cannot deduct his salary for the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th days if those days were designated as off/holidays for all other employees, of which he is also a part.

Joy Christian

Hi,

The logic is simple. The person continues to be an employee until his resignation is accepted, which never happened here. Therefore, he is right in claiming salary, as claimed.

Regards,
Hammeed :-P

Hi Shweta,

In my view, you certainly need to pay him/her for all the days, including the 4th, if you have not considered the employee as a new recruit and have not generated a New Emp. Code in your system.

Although the employee resigned on Saturday, Aug 02, 2008, according to your explanation, the management had not yet accepted his/her resignation, and thus the employee is deemed to have been in employment for all three days, probably serving the notice period.

Simply stated, if the employee has adequate leave balance, you can consider his/her absence on Aug 04, 2008, as a casual leave and provide the employee with salary for all three days as arrears in the next month's salary processing.

Hope the above justification clarifies your doubts. Kindly revert in case of any further assistance.

Best Regards,
Dhaval

Hi Shweta,

Although the employee had resigned, he had every right to withdraw the resignation before acceptance, which he has done. Therefore, he is like any other employee, and the resignation is of no consequence. He is entitled to payment for 2-3.

Hi Swetha,

Regardless of resignation acceptance, you should consider paying him if you want to retain him. If you don't want your company's reputation to be negatively affected in the market, it's crucial to take this into consideration.

Regards,
Kiran

If you persuaded the person to withdraw his resignation, it means that the company needs his services rather than he needing this particular job.

Many employers make the mistake of assuming that the power balance is tilted in their favor as far as an individual employee is concerned because they pay him every month, which enables him to run his household. They need to be reminded that these days the demand is chasing supply, and it is the employees who call the shots.

In any case, a model employer will treat the employees with organic warmth rather than merely quoting the rules, and that is what I call SAGACITY.

If you started bickering about a few days' salary on technical grounds, you are giving wrong vibes to someone who had to be cajoled to withdraw his resignation because the company values his skills. You are starting on the wrong note once again.

It is very clear that you could retain your good resource without accepting his resignation, resulting in his final settlement and relieving order not being done. Under such circumstances, I do not think you need to have any doubt on his continuity as he is continuing. You may consider his leave balances before any deduction, and this aligns with your HR leave policy. You should record the following discussion points in his personal file as a supporting document for all the exercises you have done:

- His resignation letter
- Discussion points endorsed on his resignation letter
- Your final write-up on the same resignation letter stating the employee's acceptance to withdraw his resignation, which is finally approved by a senior HR person and his or her immediate functional head.

That is all I feel is appropriate; anyway, it all goes according to the organization's specifics.

Dear Shweta,

I am sure there is a notice period that is to be served. If that is the case, August 4, 2008, would be a leave day. If there is no concept of a notice period, then the employee would not be eligible to be paid on August 4, 2008, but should certainly be paid for August 2 and 3, 2008. The reason is until the resignation is accepted, the employee is on the company's rolls, and the two days are considered as part of the weekly off.

So, please pay him for August 2 and 3, 2008.

Warm regards,
Swaminath Adabala

Hi Sweta,

Now I'm facing the same situation. After resignation, he was absent for 5 days without intimation. After that, he rejoined. So we took these days as leave without pay.

Thanks and regards,
Jossy Justin

Dear Shweta,

The details clearly show that you had not accepted the resignation, nor was it the termination of the services of the employee by the organization. You had only kept the decision pending and tried to convince the employee to return, amounting to the withdrawal of the resignation letter submitted, which clearly indicates that the employee was still on the rolls. In this case, the two days which the employee did not attend the job can be treated only as days on leave (of any kind), and it also cannot be treated as unauthorized absence since he had already informed you that he would be coming back to duty on the mentioned date. So, only if the employee had utilized all his leave benefits, then the loss of pay can be imposed on him.

If you have deducted the salary on the basis that he had resigned and rejoined, then you should accept the resignation, settle all dues, and create new records as done for an employee who joins your organization as a fresh entrant.

Regards,
R. Manoj

Absolutely right. The desire should be to keep him and keep him happy. Not to make him feel that he made a mistake by staying back. - Renu

Hi,

The whole debate looks strange to me from an HR perspective. HR's job is to keep employees motivated and happy. You must make him comfortable and indicate that his presence in the organization is valued, or else let him go.

This person also seems to be immature. He first resigns and then joins back again, thus legally making his case very weak. The fact that he has given another joining letter means that he accepts quitting his job on a particular day.

Purely from a managerial perspective, you should ignore the "salary loss," pay him, and remove the discontent. Your management (must be from Max Weber's schools) wants to retain the employee but seems to be creating a fuss about two days' salary.

Was he a daily wage laborer? If you want to retain good people, you must respect them, and such trivial issues shouldn't come in the way.

With each day's delay in the settlement of this matter, you are giving him an opportunity to feel bad about the organization, and his performance quality is likely to suffer. He will keep getting wages while he is wasting at least one hour complaining and cribbing about you and the organization.

All the best,

Neeraj

There is no option but to pay. If you are so generous and considerate in asking the employee to withdraw his resignation, why are you showing such an attitude of deducting his pay? As pointed out by others, he continues to be on your rolls. His offer to resign has not been accepted, and hence there is no question of making any deduction.

Cyril

Ms. Shweta,

You can deduct for 2 days if you have a policy that after a holiday, anyone not attending the office, i.e., Monday absent, the entire holidays will be treated as absent. If you don't have such an HR policy, then you have to pay for those 2 days. The resignation was submitted on Saturday, which is an off day, so there is no value for that day; it will count from the next working day only.

If he resigns and his last working day is 3rd Aug, can you pay for the 2nd and 3rd? Will you release on the 3rd?

Thanks & Regards,
Sanjeev Reddy

Hi Shweta,

You do not need to deduct his salary as he had resigned, but since his resignation was not accepted, he is still an employee of your organization. Therefore, please pay him his full salary.

Regards,
Ajay

Employees should be paid wages for those days since resignation has not been accepted. HR should accept the resignation letter only when it is signed by the employee's superiors with comments. Later, HR can take the employee for counseling.

Yes, I agree with Madhukarkaitha. Resignation is one type of offer, and for effective communication, it must be accepted and duly communicated with the employee. From the employer's side, you have convinced him to stay on, considering him in continuity of service. However, as there is no written acceptance from your side, the off days would be payable to him, and his salary for Monday would be deducted.

Jitendra Parmar
Wockhardt
9824964123

Since you have not communicated with him about the acceptance of his resignation, put him on leave.

Hi there,

There is no need to pay him for the days when he was absent from the job because he himself was absent. Management did not stop him from duty. You must know about the principle of "NO WORK NO WAGES." So, in the light of the above-mentioned principle, don't pay him.

Hi Shweta,

The employee submitted his resignation on August 2 and has been allowed to withdraw it on August 5. So, technically speaking, he is on the company's payroll without any break in service. If there is no break in service, then you cannot deduct salary for the employee on weekly off days.

However, you can check with his/her supervisor to confirm if the employee reported for work and performed any tasks on August 4 and August 5. If the employee did not engage in any work on August 4, he/she should be asked to apply for leave or treat it as leave without pay. Since the resignation was withdrawn and accepted on August 5, the employee has to be marked as present. Therefore, the only day in question is August 4, 2008.

I hope I have been helpful.

Regards,
Buland

Dear Shweta,

There will be a company notice period (say 30 days or 45 working days, etc.) for any employee to be relieved from the company. As the employee has just submitted a resignation letter (either not accepted by the employer or been relieved from the company), they will still be on the company's payroll. Therefore, there will be no question of loss of pay (LOP) or salary without pay.

In such cases, if an employee takes leave and has enough earned leave, that should not be considered as loss of pay or salary without pay. Again, this decision has to be made on a case-by-case basis.

Regards,
Chitra

He should be paid. You didn't accept his resignation. Moreover, he revoked his resignation, so he continues to be your employee.

Hey Shawta, He wants to resign from your company, but your influence helps him reconsider his decision. I just want to say, if you are retaining that employee, then I don't think there is any harm in paying him two days' salary. If he is a valuable resource, then gaining his trust is worth more than just two days' salary.

Hi friends, :)

It's been quite a while, and I miss you all.

Regarding the question asked, it is better for you to pay the staff as the two days are off days during which I believe the company does pay its staff. Therefore, it is better to pay him.

Thank you,
Kemi.
Nigeria

Hi,

Since you have not settled his full and final settlement, he is eligible for the pay. Only in cases where you have issued a relieving letter and service certificate considering his last working day, you should not pay.

SAK

I also endorse the view that salary cannot be denied. Naturally, 2nd August being Saturday was an off day, and so he is paid. The 3rd is Sunday, and he has to be paid as his services are being retained. But the 4th is a working day. So either he gives a leave application for that day or he forgoes the salary :(

Regards, KK Nair

You have not accepted his resignation, so you need to pay him for 2nd and 3rd August.

Regards, Archana

Dear Ms. Shweta,
Neutrally speaking, an employee should not cease his/her work or duty merely submitting the resignation paper and have to stay on till a due communication is made of its acceptance. If someone does so remaining off immediately after submitting his/her resignation paper should not have any morality to claim the dues during those off days till the resignation paper is recalled by the employee since the submission of the same. Those leaves may be counted as unauthorized leaves. In case of unauthorized leave the employer has every right to exercise his rulings. It is purely at the discretion of the employer to release or not to release the dues relating to those off days since submission of resignation paper till it is is recalled as this violates the code of conduct as an employee to remain off before resignation letter is duly accepted & communicated. But an employee has every right to take back his resignation paper if it is not accepted by or pending with the employer .But it is the duty of every employer to communicate the status (acceptance / non-acceptance) of the resignation letter to the employee concerned within certain time frame. Also the employer must communicate to the employee the reasons of non-acceptance of his/her resignation paper. That's all what I want to make you clear. Thanks & all wishes to you.

Biswajit Pani
E-mail Id. : [Login to view]

Dear Sweta,

Since it was your company's prerogative, there should not be any deduction of salary.

D.K. MOITRA
SR. MANAGER (HR) OPS
MAGMA FINCORP LTD

If the resignation letter has not been accepted, it means we can only consider it as an absent day (excluding holidays).

With regards, K. Poongodi

Dear Shweta,

You cannot deduct his salary. If an employee resigns and leaves without notice period, the employer can deduct his notice period amount as per policy. If the company sacks an employee, the company has to pay the notice period amount again as per policy. In your case, the resignation is not even accepted. How can his salary be deducted?