Hello Mr.Saikumar,
I spoke to my father's employer regarding the interest due to the delay in Gratuity pay out, and below is what the HR manager told me:
He said that the company cannot withold the Gratuity with them if it is not claimed or paid out to the nominee for any reason. In that case that liable Gratuity amount is paid out to some fund called Labour Welfare Fund and not kept with the employer. In case a nominee claims it sometime later (or say after years) then they have to claim it from the Labour Welfare Fund and not from the company. So, according to him, today if we claim the Gratuity after 3 years then we should be checking with the Labour Welfare fund. And the employer is never liable to pay any interest on it. But he also said, since the HR team got changed after 2010 (after my father's demise), he said that his new team somehow could not ascertain if indeed the Gratuity money was given to the Labour Welfare Fund and more so, to "help us avoid the misery of getting into the process of claiming the money from the Labor Welfare Fund", which according to him, would have been a horrendous task to do. So in view of all this, and as per him they wanted to "make it easy for the family of their ex-employee to get the Gratuity easily", so they have paid only the principal Gratuity amount. And he said hence because of the clause to deposit unclaimed Gratuity inthe Labour Welfare Fund the company in NOT liable to pay any interest.
Has what the HR manager told me, true? But somehow I am not convinced with what they say. Can you please guide me if this is true.
Thanks,
Ritu