How Should I Respond to a Show Cause Notice for Unauthorized Absence at Work?

Hi,

I am working in a financial company. I had visited abroad without the company's permission and, upon giving a sickness certificate, I rejoined the company after 2 months. The company issued me a charge sheet for unauthorized absence, which I accepted, acknowledging that I had visited abroad and violated the company's rules. The company then issued me a show cause notice as follows:

"Charge sheet was issued to you, and the reply received from you indicated that you have not disputed the violation of the rule. Therefore, considering the nature of these acts, which have been detrimental to the company's interests, I provisionally propose to impose on you the penalty of reversion to the lower cadre under company rules with immediate effect. However, before proceeding further, I hereby direct you to show cause within a period of seven days as to why the penalty of reversion to the lower cadre proposed herein should not be imposed on you. If no reply is received within the aforementioned period or if the reply received is deemed unsatisfactory, further action shall ensue without any reference to you."

I need to reply to this show cause notice, and I would appreciate your guidance on how to draft the response.

Thank you.

Chandran

Mr. Chandran,

With reference to the contents of the Show Cause Notice, is it mentioned in your Service Agreement that you can't go abroad or travel without the company's prior permission? Kindly check at your end.

Is prior permission required from your company only for going abroad or traveling within India as well? As per my view, in India, every Indian citizen has a fundamental right to travel within the nation. However, regarding the restriction on employees to travel or go abroad, it is a restriction on the Right to Life, Personal Liberty, and Privacy of the employee (Art. 21 of the Indian Constitution). Hence, the company cannot bind its employees from going abroad or traveling.

In your case, since you have not given any reasonable cause for your abroad travel and also produced a false sickness certificate, your company may have doubts about your foreign visits. As aforementioned, kindly peruse your Service Agreement and contact a local lawyer to come out of this situation.

Regards, Saquib Mumbai

In my opinion, you should write an apology for your unauthorized absence and assure them not to do it again if you have failed to provide a medical certificate.