Urgent Help Needed: How to Handle Notice Period Dispute with Senior Executive?

Urgent Query on Notice Period Dispute

I have a very important question. Seniors, please help. We had a senior executive in the SENIOR MANAGEMENT team who recently quit us. He had completed 5 and a half months in the organization. According to his notice period during probation (less than 6 months), he was supposed to serve a notice period of 2 months as it's a senior position.

However, after placing his resignation, he wished to be relieved earlier. Management asked him to serve a 2-month notice period and hand over the charge to the concerned person appropriately, but this person insisted that he in no way could serve a 2-month notice period and that if he was given a choice of two months or a single day, he would opt for a single day. Later on, he said he could only stay for one month. Finally, the management asked him to stay for one week, in a scenario where he didn't want to work, and just hand over the charge to some other person.

According to this arrangement, there are no dues from the organization as he only stayed for one week after resignation. Now he's demanding full salary, saying that it was mutually agreed to relieve him in one week. He's completely ignoring the fact under what circumstances he was asked to leave in one week.

Moreover, he's saying, as per HR law, there only needs to be a one-day notice period during probation and not two months, but he has signed the appointment letter with this notice period. Is this true?

Please advise what can be done in this case. It's urgent. Your help will be appreciated.

Thanks,

Mini

Addressing Notice Period Deviations

There are too many deviations. In order to find a fitting reply, please look into the case and identify the loopholes created by the management. When the notice period was suddenly cut down, what compensatory information was shared with him?

One week notice period was declared by the management team; hence, it was almost like buying the notice period out with leadership. He had signed and agreed to serve for 1 month. What was communicated to him when he requested an early release? If the information wasn't made clear right at the beginning, it may lead to a compensatory situation later.

There is ideally no mid-way solution as of now. However, the Full and Final settlement needs to calculate the days of the notice period agreed upon by the management. Wish you all the best!

Thank you for finding the time to reply to my query. I just wanted to clarify one thing. When management discussed the exit plan, they expressed their desire for a smooth handover and discussed all the tasks they wanted to be completed before the exit. However, this person did not react positively. He mentioned that it was too much to expect from him and that he wasn't planning to stay for 2 months. He wanted to be relieved at the earliest, even stating that given a choice between 1 day or two months, he would opt for one day. The maximum he can stay until is 31st March. When management realized that this person's heart is not in the job and he is not willing to work, they questioned the point of making someone stay against their desire. It would have been a waste of time. Therefore, a revised date of 1 week was given to that person.

Another question arises: the agreed-upon date was mutually accepted by this individual and was not imposed. He was pleased to learn that the company was ready to relieve him earlier as per his wishes. In light of this mutual agreement, the date was set. Why then is the company still liable to pay salary until 31st March? Shouldn't he only be eligible for payment until his last working day?

Thank you for finding time to reply to my query. I just wanted to clarify one thing: When management discussed the exit plan, they expressed their desire for a smooth handover and discussed all the things that they wanted to be completed before the exit. This person did not react positively and said that it was too much to expect from him. He wasn't planning to stay for 2 months and wanted to be relieved at the earliest. He mentioned that if given a choice between 1 day or two months, he would opt for one day. The maximum he can stay until is 31st March. When management realized that this person's heart is not in the job and he is not willing to work, they questioned the point of making someone stay against their desire. It would have been a waste of time. Hence, the revised date of 1 week was given to that person.

Another question arises: Even though the agreed date was mutually accepted and fixed, why is the company still liable to pay salary till 31st March? Shouldn't he only be eligible for payment till his last working day?

Notice Period and Mutual Agreement

I would suggest that you must go by the emails that must have been mutually exchanged between him and your management regarding the notice period. If the management has given him 1 month or 1 week and whichever has been accepted by him, only that notice period must be payable to him.

In case all these communications happened verbally, then you must stick to the appointment letter and company policy on the terms of notice pay.

Hope you are able to sort this out. Good luck.