Forced resignation on account of doing misbehaviour on phone with senior

Recently, I have been asked to resign from the position of AREA MANAGER for a life insurance company due to misbehavior on the phone with seniors. The company did not issue a formal notice but directly provided me with a deadline date to stop coming to the office from that day. I am a permanent employee, and according to the offer letter, either party can serve a 30-day notice period before resigning from the job.

I am seeking advice on what steps I should take in this situation. I am looking forward to a constructive discussion.

Hi Sushil,

You seem to be working in Rajasthan. If that is the case, the Rajasthan Shops and Establishment Act, 1958 is applicable. However, if you are not performing management functions, then you are not covered under the definition of an employer, which includes a manager. In this scenario, you would be considered an employee.

As a confirmed employee, under section 28B of the Act, you cannot be terminated without reasonable cause and without one month's notice or in lieu of a notice period. It appears that both of these conditions are lacking in your case, making the termination illegal.

Thanks,
Sushil

Dear Sushil ji,

May I ask you, if the concerned employee is not covered as an employee, then what? In this case, is the termination not illegal?

Thank you.

Dear Kargaonkarji,

If he is not an employee under the said Act, then only a civil suit will lie for the recovery of damages. My concern was to emphasize that he should firstly seek a better remedy which may entitle him to reinstatement even. It sometimes happens that even a person holding the designation of Area Manager is covered under the definition of a workman defined under the ID Act, which depends upon the nature of duties and functions they perform. In this case, this remedy is also available. In both of these cases, the thrust is the master-servant relationship must exist, by virtue of which termination gives cause of action.

Thanks,

Sushil

Thanks for your words, but there is one more catch. The HR has asked me to resign for a forceful resignation on a certain date. Beyond that date, I am not allowed to work. They have directly issued me a relieving letter for that particular date as my last day of working without my resignation. Can you suggest how I can proceed in this matter? The complete process adopted by them is unlawful as it does not adhere to the terms and conditions mentioned in the offer letter.

Dear Shobhit,

You have accepted that you have misbehaved with your seniors, which goes against any work ethics. The company has decided to treat you as a resigned employee rather than terminating you, as termination would leave a negative mark on your career. Kindly share the complete clause from your appointment letter regarding the serving of the notice period. However, you may always approach HR and negotiate for 30 days' salary on a friendly note.

Chitra

All of you are giving good suggestions, but nobody is reading the cause. Mr. Area Manager has committed some misbehavior over the telephone to a senior, and this no company would tolerate, at least not a company that runs professionally. So first and foremost, he/she has to find out what the cause was and later try to give your good suggestions.

Hi,

A few points need to be clarified by you:

1) If it is a forced resignation, the onus will be on the employee to prove it.

2) If you misbehaved with your seniors and if they have evidence for the same, yes, the management has the right to remove you from the job (of course, they have to provide you the opportunity to explain your side).

3) No courts will accept misbehavior by employees.

4) What kind of disciplinary actions are defined in your appointment or service guidelines?

5) Unless defined in the appointment order/service guidelines, an employee cannot be subjected to "disciplinary actions." If you really committed the mistake, acknowledge the same, and try to convince the HR dept/management to provide one more opportunity to you. If the mistake is on your side, any legal action you are planning against the company will be futile.

Regards,
R. Sudhakar

Dear Chitra,

It has been manipulated as misbehavior, but it was all a heated argument in response to their wrongful doings to me over the phone. They have conveyed this to HR without conducting any investigation into my side of the matter. HR then issued me a notice period for forced resignation, followed by a relieving letter stating, "As per your interest, we are accepting your resignation," without providing me the sufficient 30 days' notice period as per the offer letter. I have shown no interest in resigning from my work. Could you please suggest what I should do?

Thank you.

Seek advice of a lawyer and file a case of illegal termination against the company. Basic rules of natural justice have been flouted.

Share the clause which was there in your offer letter regarding notice period if they clearly mentioned they can terminate your service with or without notice at any time. Then, it is a waste of time to approach a lawyer.

Thank you very much for your suggestions. There are a few more suggestions that I need:

1. HR has forced me to resign on a certain date without meeting any conditions mentioned in my offer letter. They did not provide a one-month notice period as per the offer letter, nor did they address any notice period in their recent email, which states that my forced resignation will be effective on this particular date. Is this notice null and void? Should I consider it valid or pursue legal action?

2. They have made another error by issuing me a relieving letter stating that they are happy to relieve me from my job based on my request and interest, even though I did not submit a resignation for that date. What steps should I take in response to this?

3. Are there any deadlines for filing a case of this nature?

Thank you. I eagerly await your valuable suggestions.

SHOBHIT

Dear Friends,
Badly in need of your help. After a 3yrs of gap post my maternity (after so much of struggle in getting job due to my long break) I joined a startup company as HR. Since it was a startup, they didn't have any HR over there. The owner of the company just sent me a mail saying "we are offering this job", without mentioning any clause or terms and conditions. He also told on phone that, as we don't have any HR yet, you have to create your offer letter yourself once you join. As I already had almost 5yrs of experience previously, I was very much excited and I joined. I also rejected another offer which was offering me even higher salary (it was an MNC) just because this was near to my house and I could manage both office and home. None of the officials in the company have the software industry experience except the owner of the company. Even the owner has only some software experience but no idea about HR terms and policies. He started the company and left his father to look after (He works out of India and parallely wants to operate this business from there). Now whenever I wanted to give inputs as per my experience to his father regarding operations, they understood as argument or over smart. Now, just after 18 days of work they have sacked me out without saying anything and no notice pay. Now since nothing is mentioned in the offer letter, will I be eligible for the 2 months’ notice period as it’s the clause in other software companies? The company is not yet registered under the shop and establishment act.
Please reply me fast as I need to take any action immediately.

Regards,
Sarala P

You can probably file a case against the individual. Consult a lawyer at the earliest. If the MNC job which you rejected is still open, consider joining there. This 18-day job is a waste of time. In my personal opinion, forget it and move ahead. It's not worth fighting it legally either. You need to examine all job offers very carefully.

The whole setup seems to be in the setting-up stage, and things have not been formalized.

Hello Sarala,

Like Nathrao suggested, just forget this and move on.

A word of caution—next time, don't ignore carrying out due diligence of the company—especially if it's a startup.

Not all startups are bad, but the word 'startup' is now more often than not used so very loosely that the true meaning has got lost in the mela.

Your excessive focus on being near your home (nothing wrong in this per se) 'seems' to have been used/capitalized by the father in this company.

Just don't show this experience on your resume.

I recollect an almost identical scenario with a startup (same father/son combination) with whom we worked earlier. What the son thought was right wasn't agreed upon by the father (after all, he's the 'father' and the son had to listen to him, I guess)… in the end, we stopped servicing them and the company also closed down.

As a general rule, be doubly cautious where family members are part of the core management team. Problems at home can affect the office working, and it's HR who gets hit/blamed. This is in addition to the generation gap the older relatives quite often have in understanding modern-day technologies/practices (though I surely won't generalize this aspect).

All the best.

Regards,

TS

Thank you very much for your suggestions.

However, there are certain more suggestions that I need:

1. HR has forced me to resign on a specific date without meeting any conditions mentioned in my offer letter. They did not provide a one-month notice period, nor did they mention anything related to notice in their last email, which states that my forced resignation will take effect on this particular date. Is this notice null and void? Please advise whether I should consider it as valid or if I should pursue legal action.

2. They have made another mistake by issuing me a relieving letter stating that "as per your request and interest, we are happy to relieve you from your job with this date," even though I did not submit any resignation for that date. Please suggest what I should do in this situation.

3. Is there a deadline for filing a case of my kind?

Thank you, and I am looking forward to your valuable suggestions.

SHOBHIT
Posted on 6th July 2015

Shobit,

You will have to prove forced resignation, and that should not be difficult if you have not given your resignation. The general rule of law is if you allege something, you need to prove it. Have you given any resignation for any date? There is always a limitation period for legal cases, but the sooner the issue is sorted out or converted into a legal issue, the better it is. If you feel aggrieved and want redress, go with all facts, letters, email copies to your lawyer, and set the ball rolling. I must remind you that court battles are expensive and time-consuming. This, in itself, puts off many from enforcing legal rights. Also, this fact is taken advantage of by unscrupulous employers against individual employees.