Abcent From Work

Hi,
We have an employee who has been not met with certain criteria in the work place and gave him a warning for not clocking out.......He then stays away from work without letting Management know (2 days absconded), so once again a return warning letter was issued, once he was issued the notice he did not come to work the following day......I need to know how to word his 3rd and final warning letter and give him a letter of retrenchment as we can not run a business this way. Please advise.

Hope you are from South Africa and I doubt the view expressed by me in the light of Indian Labour Laws would be appropriate for you.

Under Indian Labour practice, 2 days of leave cannot be treated as absconding. If you treat the warning letters as caution given to him before termination, it is not sufficient for a valid termination. As far as possible, you will have to issue a charge sheet and collect his explanation. The charge sheet should state the charges, ie, bad performance, incidents of giving him warning letters and also the absent from work for the days following the days on which he was given warning and ask him to show cause why his services should not be terminated. The letter should also state that if he does not reply within a specified time (give him reasonable time, say one week, to reply to the charges) his services would be terminated without further notice.If he replies and if the reply is not satisfactory, you may conduct a domestic enquiry and then take a decision.

Madhu.T.K