Navigating Notice Period Challenges: What Are My Legal Obligations When an Employee Resigns on Medical Leave?

One of my employees has submitted her resignation dated 20th June. However, she has been on leave due to health reasons since the last week of May. I have already paid her May salary. She currently has no leave credits, so she is on loss of pay. My employee has mentioned that she is unable to serve the notice period as she is unfit to travel.

Queries Regarding Notice Period and Legal Obligations

Now my query is:
1. Am I obligated to pay her for her one-month notice period even though she has expressed her inability to be present?
2. Can she take legal action against us for not providing payment during her notice period?
3. Alternatively, should we request her to reimburse us for not fulfilling the notice period?

Please assist me with this matter.

Thank you and regards,
Shanza Sunil

Immediate Resignation Acceptance

Whether she requested to accept her resignation with immediate effect?

Regards,
B. Saikumar
HR & Labour Law Advisor
Mumbai

Since you are not terminating her service without notice, you need not pay any notice pay. As far as she is concerned, she has submitted her resignation and expressed her inability to serve the notice period. She is required to pay you the wages for one month in lieu of notice. However, having regard to her condition, you may accept her resignation with immediate effect (if she has not expressed her intention to be relieved with effect from a future date) to achieve a win-win situation.

Regards,
B. Saikumar
HR & Labour Law Advisor
Mumbai

I agree with Mr. Saikumar. I am not sure about the notice period terms you have used and your understanding of them, but generally, there is no question of paying a notice period to an employee who wants to leave the job or is resigning from the post. The notice period is something an employer is bound to pay when they find themselves in a situation where they can't retain the employees and have to ask the employee to leave. This payment is considered compensation for the loss of employment. In your case, the employee has resigned with a reason, therefore:

Answer 1: There is no need to pay anything to her except dues with F&F (if any).

Answer 2: She can't take any legal action because you haven't breached the employment terms, and she has resigned herself. Please review the employment notice period terms once.

Answer 3: It depends on you, but if you find her reasons genuine, I believe she can be relieved, and there is no need to ask her to pay you back. However, we cannot ignore the fact that there are numerous cases where people make false statements and reasons to leave a job with immediate effect. Therefore, you must ask her for medical bills/prescriptions for your record or if there are any dues on her account.

Thank you a lot for your kind advice. I shall accept her resignation and ask her to sign off the NO DUES form. As Arora Sir said, I shall ask her to provide the medical bills also for our records. Once again, thank you Sirs!

Regards,
Shanza Sunil