Can We Stop Previous Month Salary Payment For A Person Who Is Absconding?

Hi,

I would like to have your valuable opinion on this. We are a BPO company. One of our employees, after collecting his salary check, has failed to report to duty from the next day. There is no response to calls or emails, and he is considered as absconding. As per the employment terms, the person needs to give one month's notice if he plans to resign and has also signed a one-year employment bond with the company.

In such a scenario, can we put a stop payment to the salary check already issued? Is the company justified in doing so, and is it legal?

Ramvema

Dear Ramvema,

The company can indeed do this, and it would be ethical and justified on the company's part to do the same. You may issue a warning letter to keep documentation of the situation and then withhold his salary cheque.

Additionally, what were the terms and conditions under which he had filled the bond?

Regards,
MK

Hi Ram,

Actually, he breached the employment conditions, and legal action can be taken against him. But before taking any harsh actions, have you done your homework? As per your statement, you have not sent any letter or initiated any inquiry to understand the employee's situation. It's possible that he may have met with an accident, been badly injured, or passed away.

Send a letter within 45 days to both his permanent and present addresses. If there is no response, file a case against him in the CJM court.

Thank you.

Thank you for your replies, MK and Vikash.

We called on his mobile the day he did not turn up, and his father picked up the call and informed that the person had gone out and would be back in 10 minutes. We left a message asking him to call back to the office and inform the reason for not turning up. After that, we did not receive any call, nor was he picking up our call the next day. So, I don't think he was involved in any kind of untoward incident.

Luckily, he did not encash his cheque by then, so we put a stop payment and sent him an email giving him one week's time to report to the office to provide an explanation for his unauthorized absence. There was no reply to that also.

As per the employment terms and bond, he needs to work for the company for one year; failing which, one month of salary has to be paid. Since we stopped his payment, can he now say that we have not paid him his salary, so he does not want to continue his employment?