Legal Dilemma: Can We Take Action for Missing Resignation Response and Documents?

Dear All,

My wife was working for a well-reputed IT company as an HR on a contractor's payroll. She had signed a 3-month contract with them and had to quit just 8 days before her contract was about to end due to personal reasons. She wrote a resignation email to all the concerned persons. After writing the resignation email, she worked for one more day and then quit. However, she did not receive any response from them despite regularly sending follow-up emails to confirm her resignation.

After exactly 25 days, she received a response saying they would get back to her. Then, after 45 days from her resignation, she was informed that her resignation was not accepted, and they would not issue her a letter.

My question is, she had only 8 days left to complete her contract, and due to the personal reason for resigning, she waited for a response for two days. However, she received the mentioned response after 45 days.

Kindly guide us, can we take legal action against them?

Greetings,

Did she keep any document to support the submission of the resignation to her reporting manager? You have mentioned that she has been communicating since then. Did she do this through email? What data/documents has she maintained so far to substantiate what you are saying?

Ideally, every bond has a lock-in period. What about the amount mentioned in the bond? Was it levied until the last date of its validity?

Finally, what about the handing over of the responsibilities and relieving formalities completed by your wife? Did she keep any document to support that?

Regards, (Cite Contribution)

Dear Cite Contribution,

Thank you for your response. She has all email records for all the correspondence she had with them from day 1 of her resignation. The contract was for 3 months, so she had only 8 days left to complete 3 months. She resigned on 3rd March, and she was there at the office till 4th March, but no one bothered to respond nor asked to hand over anything. The mood was as if nothing had happened. So from 6th March, she stopped going as our entire family shifted to a new city. She didn't have any base to stay in Bangalore.

The contractor is claiming she didn't complete her notice period, but not considering the fact that she had informed them two days in advance about the level of urgency. Secondly, they have not responded for 21 days despite repeated attempts to communicate with them.

Greetings,

I request our legal expert to comment on the breach of the contract. An employment stands terminated at the submission of a resignation. The acceptance and relieving are an employer's prerogative, but it's still a 'right' to the employee. The employer not replying to her resignation submission is purely tactical. Did they claim the monetary value of the bond?

Regards,
(Cite Contribution)

They have not claimed anything. As said earlier, they didn't even try to reach my wife over the phone or email, but now I have engaged in an email exchange with the contractor. Now they are responding, but the same drama continues.

I have also notified them about the possibility of taking legal action against them.

Hello,

Where she was working as an implant is immaterial. The employer-employee relationship was between her and the contractor. While it is unwise for me to take a position (in the absence of terms and conditions of the contract), one thing is for sure. No employer has the right to "refuse to accept a resignation". The resignation becomes operational at the end of the due "notice period" if any. In the absence of a notice stipulation, the employer can do sweet nothing except be vindictive and deny certain privileges that would become due to an employee upon resignation.

On other matters, I will only say that it is a learning experience to work for uncouth, undeserving, and uncultured employers! It is better to put this matter behind you as you/she would have no legal recourse and concentrate on the future to make more informed choices.

Regards, Samvedan April 22, 2011