How Should I Handle a Resignation Letter When a Director's Signature is Requested?

Dear All, There has been a problem while processing the F&F settlement of an employee. One of the senior employees in the company is asking me to get the signature of the Director of the company on the resignation letter of the employee and then proceed to make the F&F settlement of the employee.

I believe that if we have received acceptance from the concerned reporting manager against the resignation letter submitted by the employee, it will suffice, regardless of whether the appointment letter of the employee was signed by the Director of the company.

Please advise me on the proper way to handle the situation. I am waiting for your quick response on this.

It all depends on the size of your company. If you have fewer than 200 employees, some organizations require it to be signed by the Director. Again, it depends on who has resigned and under what circumstances they resigned. This is purely an internal process, and finding the correct guidelines from external sources may be challenging. Feel free to provide more details or facts if needed.

Regards,
Sivasankaran

As Sivasankaran mentioned, this depends a lot on the size of the company. Informing the director is one thing, but his acceptance of resignation is under the purview of the reporting authority only.

Few organizations have the process implemented through the HR Department. The reporting authority forwards the resignation letter/mail to HR for further processing.

What I feel is that he is trying to judge your knowledge and instigate an argument/debate. Please tell him that the appointment/joining letter mentions the name/designation of the person responsible as the employee's reporting head, and hence accepting/declining/sanctioning any leaves, requests, and, for that matter, even resignation is under the purview of the manager. The purpose of the director signing the appointment letter has a different purpose—a lot more and a different matter to discuss.

This is completely the company's internal policy, and hence you can draft one and issue it to the manager so that such issues do not arise in the future.

Thank you, seniors. I would like to add that the person in question is in the accounts department and has been working here for over 25 years. He is always ready to argue about things related to HR. I informed him that ideally, the resignation should be accepted by the reporting manager only, and the intimation of resignation can be given to the director. However, he is not willing to listen to anything. Truly, the person is very irritating. May God give him some wisdom so that he could understand how to behave with manners. 

Acceptance of Resignation

Acceptance of resignation from the reporting manager will suffice, but if there is any standing order or instruction from the director that all resignations will be accepted by him/her, then what can the poor accounts guy do other than argue? As stated by Hiral and Siva, it's purely an internal process or policy where any outside source cannot help you.

Last but not least, what's the harm in getting the resignation accepted by the director for a smooth exit and healthy relations with your company?

It is not compulsory to get the acceptance of the resignation from the top-level management, such as the director of the company. No such provision exists for acceptance. It could be accepted by the concerned manager of the company. If the employee who has resigned from the service of the company is putting pressure on you to have it signed by the management, you can send the acceptance of the resignation by registered post to the concerned employee and further process their full and final settlement.

Regards,
R. B. Yadav
Advocate

As per my understanding, once the manager approves your resignation letter, no further approval is required from anyone unless there is a specific process in the organization that requires approval from the next level after the manager's approval.

If there is no such process in place, then you can certainly request your Full and Final (F & F) settlement without any additional requirements.

Regards,
Chanchal

Understanding Senior Employee Expectations

The person has worked for 25 years in the company and, naturally, he would have worked closely with top management in earlier days. HR heads should also look at the expectations of such senior employees. If he is arguing with HR, what is wrong? That is an expression of opinion.

After 25 years of experience, he expects a word of appreciation from the director, and what is wrong with his expectation? The director may even say, "You continue in the organization in some other department" or "You work in my department." What is wrong with it?

Ideally, check with the director, and if he is prepared to sign, get it signed by him. You have nothing to lose. It is just an acknowledgment for his 25 years of service.

I read with passion the contributions above. From my view, I wish to ask: who signed his letter of appointment when he joined the company? He may be hiding under that cover, requesting the director's assent. If it was the Director who signed at the point of entry, then route it back to him to settle the matter. As others have written, it is purely an internal issue that needs to be redesigned to avoid future occurrences.

Thanks,

Ajayi Olufemi
Abuja, Nigeria

In most organizations, the acceptance of resignation is a responsibility assigned to the manager to whom the employee reports. For direct reports of the Managing Director (MD), the resignation is thus to be accepted by the MD.

Please note that delegation of responsibility is a standard practice in all organizations. Thus, acceptance of resignation by the concerned manager (to whom the employee reports) is an authorized transaction and is beyond the scope of any debate or clarifications. However, it is advisable to formally lay down a 'Responsibility Delegation Matrix' for various HR-related decisions and to issue the same under the signatures of the MD. This helps in ensuring compliance as well as silencing those who are in the habit of creating issues.

As brought out by others, it is an internal administration issue and there are no legal bindings associated with it.

It all depends on the management of the company. An employee gives their resignation letter to their department head, who then submits it to their unit head in the company. Finally, the unit head submits it to the HR department to process the full and final settlement. It is not compulsory for the factory manager to sign that letter; more importantly, the signatures of the HR head and unit head are compulsory.

I hope you have a proper understanding now.

Thanks,
Neelima

Resignation and Final Settlement Process

Generally, the employee will submit their resignation letter to the concerned head of the department. The resignation will be approved by the HOD and forwarded to the HR department. The HR HOD will inform the top management if necessary; otherwise, the full and final settlement will be done at the discretion of the HR HOD.

Regards

Authority for Accepting Resignation Letters

I believe that the appointing authority should typically be the one to accept the resignation letter. However, over the years, the individual in question may have progressed up the career ladder, and the appointing authority at their current grade should be consulted before accepting their resignation letter. It is important not to give in to the individual's demand to have the resignation letter signed by a director, as this could potentially upset the director unnecessarily.

As per my understanding, F&F needs to be settled subject to clearance from the reporting officer and other departmental heads against no dues clearance. The reporting officer can give clearance only for his department, but overall, someone authorized must sign the final clearance. Few companies follow a different structure where the employee needs to take clearance from their reporting officer and other departmental HODs (like accounts/HR/Admin, etc.).

I suggest obtaining a signature from your director on the F&F settlement form instead of the resignation. Then, you can advise your accounts team to release the payment accordingly.

Regards,
Kapil Kotwal
Sr. Manager - Corporate HR (India)

Please keep it simple. Do you have a process for exit interviews? If so, it will suffice your needs since it will be routed to the Director for his review and approval. If there is no such process, then, as rightly said by our members, it is an internal issue that needs to be sorted out within your organization. Have a discussion with the management and design a policy covering all these aspects and any other leftover issues, if any, and circulate it among all employees to start implementing the new procedure. Keep it simple & smart.

Regards,
P. Vathiraj

As many members have said, the manager's approval will suffice, and the director's signature is only optional, not mandatory. For F&F settlement, the important thing to note is whether the resignation letter given by the employee is voluntary or not. If it is not voluntary, then the worker can approach the labor commissioner to raise disputes under the ID Act or any other appropriate Act.

Secondly, after receiving the resignation letter, the HR department/manager and the worker/employee will have to enter into a 12(3) settlement as per the Act for the purpose of settling the statutory dues. The management side and worker side should put their signatures after obtaining a no-due clearance certificate from the concerned department. At least two witnesses should put their signatures on the 12(3) settlement.

Even if the company complies with all the formalities in settling the dues, the employee/worker can approach the Labor Commissioner/Labor Officer/Labor Forum to raise a dispute if statutory dues are not settled properly for him/her in accordance with the law.

Regards,
Jeevanantham S
Advocate, High Court, Chennai
[Phone Number Removed For Privacy Reasons]

Hi friends, can anyone share the full process map for the acceptance of resignation or separation?

Kishor

Mr. Siva is actually right on his part. The employee has been with the company for 25 years. He must have contributed so much to the organization, which is the reason he has been associated for such a long time. At this stage, where he just requires a signature for his 25 years of work, it should not be a big deal.

Generally, there remains a procedural sequence of "recommendation" and "acceptance" of the "Resignation," which varies from company to company. However, it is seen that the "Higher Level" of manager equivalent to the "Appointing Authority" should accept (approve) the resignation.

Reasons for Higher-Level Approval

- Logically and also legally, the authority to separate an employee cannot be lower than the appointing authority.
- A person at the "Top Management Level" needs to take the final call, especially in view of "organizational requirements" and "retention strategy."
- Authority at a level equal to or 1-2 levels higher than that of the resigning employee may play "victimization" and "bullying" games.
- The separating person will feel "valued" and will get "recognized."

(Dear members, all have been quoting that the resigning employee has put in 25 years in the organization. The question has mentioned that the Finance Manager, who is insisting on the director's signature, has been in service for the last 25 years.)

Regards

I am reproducing the post by the person who initiated this discussion for your reference. I think this post is clear about the person's service and his department, and based on this, I made my observation:

"Observation on Resignation Process

Would like to add that the guy is in the accounts department and has been working here for the last 25+ years, always ready to argue on things related to HR. I told him that ideally, the resignation should be accepted by the reporting manager only, and though intimation of resignation can be given to the director. But he is not ready to listen to anything. Really... the guy is very irritating. May God give him some wisdom so that he could understand how to behave with manners. "

Thank you.

Thank you for all your valuable support and guidance provided to resolve the matter. Furthermore, I would like to clarify that Mr. Parikh's observation concerning my inquiry is correct. The employee who resigned did not have a tenure of 25+ years in the company. The individual who has been with us for over 25 years is still working in the organization.

I hope this clears up any confusion. Thank you once again for your assistance.

Warm regards