Arrest warrant against an employee not reporting to his office? On what ground is a warrant issued? Is it a cognizable offence or non-cognizable?
These are service matters wherein the relationship between an employer and an employee is defined mainly by way of certified Standing Orders and the Industrial Disputes Act. Being a BPO firm, I believe you may not have Standing Orders. As such, at least proceed as per the appointment letter given. Normally, there would be nothing in the appointment letter regarding how to proceed if the employee absconds. If so, follow the principles of natural justice and conduct an enquiry. This should be a domestic enquiry and not an enquiry by the Police Department after filing a complaint.
A domestic enquiry starts with sending a show cause notice to the employee to his residential address. You can even send two or three such letters if the employee does not respond. This is to give him a chance to defend the charge that he is absconding.
Now, recovering the dues by way of notice pay is a different issue. Once it is proved that he has left your company, you can proceed with the recovery of notice pay. An employee who is not responding to the various letters sent by the company will not find it easy to come and settle whatever he is supposed to pay to the company by way of notice pay. If so, what shall be the step?
In my opinion, only a civil suit against the employee is the remedy because in the absence of any provision in this regard in the certified Standing Orders of the company, under Labour Laws (Industrial Disputes Act), there is no provision which makes it mandatory for an employee to serve notice or pay in lieu of notice period if he wants to leave the company. Certainly, if the employer wants to terminate one employee, he should serve notice or pay salary in lieu of such notice, but not for an employee. Therefore, he is always in a better position. I do not know if any company has ever filed any case against an employee for recovering notice pay from him. It may hardly be a month's salary, but the time and money that the company should invest in court formalities would be much higher than the amount that the company will gain. If, suppose, the company files a suit and the employee presents before the court and submits that he did not receive any communication sent by the company due to some valid reasons, and to the contrary, he had sent his letter of resignation citing some inhuman and anti-labour attitude shown by the company, and the court accepts the plea, finding it improper to recover notice pay from the employee, the time and money will be lost.
Recently, I had a similar experience in Kerala. The issue reached only the District Labour Officer level, and when the Asst. Labour Officer inspected the records of the company, there were a lot of shortfalls with regard to statutory compliances. Then the management had to amicably settle the matter anyhow.
Employment is definitely a contract. In that contract, there may be a clause that without notice, neither party should terminate it. Absconding being a violation of this clause, you can initiate a suit for breach of contract. If you are sure that the court will not interfere in Labour Law-related issues, you may file a case against the employee in a civil court. But before that, ensure that you have sent letters to him calling his attention to resume duty or directing him to show cause and pay the notice pay. Without these steps, your suit will not be maintainable.
Regards,
Madhu.T.K