Absconding Employees: How Should Companies Handle Them Legally and Fairly?

Hi,

What is the treatment for employees who go absconding? These days, we all come across so many such cases; hence, I would like to know how they are treated and what the legal implications are.

Thanks & regards, Shazneen

Hi Shazneen,
In this case what you can do is.... first send across a letter to him stating the fact (like…not reporting from so and so day reply immediately over the phone or letter). If you get no reply from his end… this time (after a week) send across a strong warning letter stating that.... legal action will be taken if he fail to respond in a week time. If no reply again.... consult you legal advisor and send across a legal notice to him.
Make sure all the letter should be communicated to his permanent address.
~Sanjay

Hi Sanjay,

Is it necessary to send the letters to his or her permanent address only? If we don't have it, what can we do?

Regards,
Surya

Hi Surya,
Then is it the employer's (HR) fault if they don't have the complete info of their employees. When the new hire completing his/her joining formalities it is the HR's responsible to get all the necessary info.
However worst case if the employer doesn't have the permanent address, probably you can check with his colleagues or friends. Don't give them a feel that you are enquiring about his/her info.
~Sanjay

Hi,

In case you do not have an address, you can still communicate by putting up an absconding notice in a local and national newspaper. Keep the record with you for any future reference.

Normally, for an absentee, if he/she is absent for more than 10 days, an absence notice is sent seeking an explanation for the absence. Based on the explanation, an inquiry is conducted. If he/she is found guilty, an opportunity is given to his union to represent his case, and then punishment is awarded. In the initial stage, suspension for a few days should be enough. You need to build up the case like this to prove that he is a habitual absentee before terminating his employment. You should always ensure that the punishment is commensurate with the offense committed; otherwise, the cases go against the management in the labor courts.

Regards, Subrato

It is the responsibility of the HR department to gather detailed resumes, proof of address, etc., before employment. The individuals in the department need to verify certificates and also conduct reference checks prior to induction. If a person does not have any documentary evidence as proof of address, they should provide a minimum of two reference persons with clear addresses and contact information.

In cases of absconding, the HR department must:

1. Send a notification to the immediate superior of the absconding person, seeking advice if the individual is consecutively absent for three days without informing HR/the department.

2. Upon receiving advice from the immediate superior, send a notification to the person's permanent address with copies to all known temporary addresses (within 7 days), allowing a further 7 days for explanation.

3. If no response is received within 14 days, inform the local police with jurisdictional authority, even if there is no financial loss to the company, as the whereabouts of the individual are unknown.

4. Subsequently, remove the person from the payroll and prepare for settlement.

On the other hand, if a person deliberately avoids reporting for duty, does not respond to letters, and there is clear evidence of intentional avoidance of duties, the individual's services should be terminated immediately in accordance with the terms of employment (including notice period).

Sajeev Kumar

Hi Shazeen,

I have been successful in putting a hold on this and would like to share my experience with you.

a) We make new joiners to the organization fill a detailed personal record form where, apart from the general data, we have a column called "Emergency contact number," where the employee has to provide two such numbers with the contact person's name. The same is updated on a quarterly basis in case of any changes.

Advantage: The company has complete and updated information on employees.

b) Leave application format: This form requires the employee to provide information such as "place of visit," address, and contact details.

Now, the benefit of this:

We had an employee who left the organization after taking the salary for the month and never returned. We followed all the norms mentioned below but couldn't gain success. Then, the leave format had the number of his in-laws' house. We contacted him there too, but the family members, despite cooperating, started behaving weirdly. Still keeping in good faith, we spoke with them two to three times and then warned them that a police FIR would be filed as:

- Being an employee of one organization, he cannot be working elsewhere as he was not relieved.
- He had the keys to the drawers.
- He had not completed the basic norms of relieving.

The result was the employee got in touch with us, paid us the notice period, and returned all the documents he had of the company.

The impact: Since we kept our PM involved in all the proceedings and had their cooperation, the other employees took it as a positive measure rather than getting into negative aftermaths.

Regards,

Veena

Hi Al,

Definitely, to a certain extent, the absconding rate can be reduced. A thought came to my mind... If we all start posting the list of such absconding employees on the site so that everyone could get a brief list of all such employees (with photographs as well).

Please let me know your views.

Thanks,
Sachin

Hi!

If the employee does not report or is absent for one week without informing anyone, in this case, the company can send a registered letter to the employee and ask him to report immediately to the company on a specified date. The company should send three letters after every seven days, and even if the employee does not report, then the company should terminate the employee by sending a letter of termination to the employee.

Regards,
Trupti :P

Hi Shazneen,

The problem can be dealt with at two stages:

A) At the time of joining the organization, all the relevant information such as temporary address, permanent address, residence phone, references, personal bond, surety, etc., can be taken. If required, background checks can also be carried out.

B) With the above information on hand, registered letters can be sent to his addresses as per the company's records to report for work immediately. After sending a couple of letters, a termination letter can be affixed to his door with the signatures of two witnesses. Alternatively, his/her photo and termination notice can be published in two prominent local newspapers. If the employee has signed any personal bond and/or surety, the company can proceed legally to recover the compensation/money.

Thanks, Regards, V. Nanda Kumar

Hi Sachin,

The above idea looks good only to the extent of keeping the name. By keeping his photograph there, there might be some legal problems.

Hi Sachin,

That is a good idea. But we should also remember that there are takers for such people, and that is why they are encouraged to abscond from their current organization. There are many companies now who are taking them on board without proper relieving letters or other documents. Still, it is always good to start such practice as this may help in the long run.

Rupa.

Absconded cases are similar to absenteeism. Just follow the normal procedure as practiced for absenteeism. In Malaysia, if employees do not turn up for over 48 hours, the company has the right to terminate their employment.

Hi Sachin,

I am game with your idea. But as said earlier, we definitely need support. We can start a forum to begin with, maybe of around 15-20 people who are ready to support this idea. This message will spread, and hopefully, others will join the gang. We can take a poll on how many people, on average, go absconding from your respective organizations, and I am sure in bigger organizations the numbers will be even more, and they will definitely want to share those names so that others don't recruit.

But again, as pointed out, these days the market is so strange that companies don't even ask for relieving and experience letters. That's so sad!

I think WE AS HR should definitely pose an objection to this, even if the organization encourages the same. The management should be made aware of the causes of encouraging this. There are so many fake CVs circulating in the market these days; at least keeping that in mind, we should make this compulsory.

What say respected HR Group?? Do you think we can stop this as a TEAM????

Rgds,

Shazneen

Hi All,

Definitely, we can stop to a certain extent if we act as a team. We should take some steps so that absconding employees do not get jobs easily in the market. Also, employees should not be offered jobs without a proper relieving letter and authenticated experience/degree certificates.

We had a similar case last month where an employee absconded from our organization and joined IDEAS. We reported the incident that he had not completed the formalities. The candidate (Rahul Saraf) managed to use fake experience/relieving certificates to secure the job. However, the organization should not have entertained the candidate when the issue was reported. Can we take any further action against this candidate?

We should put a stop to this.

Thanks,
Sachin

Hi,

I work for a BPO in Mumbai, and I have always wanted to start a forum or a database of Absconding Employees. It would be a great thing if people can team up together.

I am going to do a summer project on attrition analysis in a BPO. The HR manager has asked me to interview the absconders and resigned employees. Your suggestions, please. (I have prepared a questionnaire similar to an exit interview questionnaire).

Hi, this is Robin.

My father was working in a government firm. He has been absconding for the past 7 years, and the government firm was shut down due to running at a loss. Consequently, all the other employees received their final settlement. When we inquired about my father's final settlement, the officers informed us that we need to wait for 7 years from the date of my father's absconding in 2000. Now that the 7 years have been completed, where should I contact regarding his settlement, and what are the procedures?

Note: The company he worked for was Tamilnadu Agro Industries Corporation Ltd, undertaken by the Government of Tamilnadu, and it is now closed down.

Hi folks,

Couple of questions:

1. What should be the contents of the 1st, 2nd, and term letter?

2. What about their F & F, especially in cases where most of the companies keep a clause of 1-month notice? In case of dues, what's the procedure of recovery and notice thereof.

3. Especially in BPO industries, such instances are frequent where the majority of employees leave without notice and suddenly reappear after some time to resume or demand undue settlements. What is the best way to safeguard the company's interest?

Thanks.

I have read all the comments regarding absconding employees. First, I would like to say that the steps you all have taken are very harsh. Sending legal notices, I can understand, but going to their native place and confirming whether they stay there or not—why are you all wasting your time on such an employee? Someone has mentioned complaining to the police station; I can't stop laughing. Whether they were a thief working in your organization or just an employee, no one can force any individual to work in their organization. If they are not interested in working, try to find out the reason why they are not interested or why they left the organization.

Thank you.

Please suggest the next course of action for the query below.

I was working at a company in Bangalore. During that time, I was serving a two-month notice period. After completing one month of the notice period, I was unable to finish the remaining month due to a critical family issue. Additionally, because of the family matter, I was absent for the next 10 days. Following this, they contacted me and insisted that I complete the remaining notice period. I explained that it was not possible for me to rejoin and fulfill the remaining notice period. In response, HR informed me that I would be considered absconding.

After two months, I contacted them for my Full and Final settlement letter and Relieving letter. They provided me with the full and final settlement letter; however, they are currently withholding my Relieving or Experience letter.

Guys, please advise me on how I can obtain my experience letter from the organization.

I appreciate your support on this matter.

Regards,
Gajanan Pole

Hi Guys, I was working in one of the companies in Bangalore. During that time, I had a two-month notice period. Unfortunately, I completed only one month of the notice period. Due to a critical family issue, I was unable to complete the remaining one month of the notice period. After 10 days, HR called me and stated that I needed to rejoin and complete the remaining one month of the notice period. However, at that time, I was still unable to rejoin due to the ongoing family issue. HR then informed me that my case would be considered as absconded.

After 2.5 months, I called HR to inquire about my F & F letter and Experience letter. They provided me with only the F & F letter. Now, they are saying that I will not receive the experience letter because my case is considered absconded.

I kindly request your suggestions on how to obtain my Experience letter. Your support on this matter is much appreciated.

Regards, Gajanan Pole

Hello,

If an employee who has signed a contract leaves and is absconding, can we give a notice in a local paper stating that he is absconding and has nothing to do with us, in case he tries to reach our clients? Please guide me and let me know what the content of this notice in the paper should be.

Regards,
Sunita