Can I Take Leave During My Notice Period Due to a Family Emergency Without Losing Benefits?

Hi, I resigned from my job 15 days ago and received an acknowledgment email from the regional manager. The actual notice period to serve was 1 month.

Reason for My Resignation

My husband is in Orissa, and I live in Hyderabad. Unfortunately, he had a severe heart attack. As my job role is very responsible, I sent my parents, and I had to come to my office for one week to hand over the complete status to my colleague. Then, I went on leave to attend to my husband. I returned, and now HR says that as I am not supposed to take any leave during the notice period, the incentives would not be paid. I should be paid about 1.8 lacs.

Query

Is there any rule where a person, under sudden unfortunate circumstances, can take leave during the notice period?

Regards

The answer to your query depends upon the conditions stipulated for the notice of resignation. If there is a specific condition that the resigning employee would not be permitted to avail of any leave while serving the notice period, the contention of the HR will be correct to the extent that you are not supposed to avail of any leave during the notice period. However, it would not be correct to entirely forfeit the incentives earned for the service rendered in the past. After all, rules are not God-given but man-made only for the sake of the smooth functioning of the system. When the husband is critically ill in a faraway place, how can anyone, even with a minimum of common sense and empathetic consideration, expect the wife to be so indifferent? It would be better to make a representation to your top management for waiving this as a special case, at least by adjusting the salary for the leave period against your terminal benefits, if any.

Regards

Sir, thanks for the suggestion. I have a few more clarifications to be addressed.

Leave Policy and Salary Deduction

At the time of joining, we were asked to sign HR policies, but nowhere is it mentioned that we are not supposed to take leave during the relieving period. My salary was deducted for 9 days, including Sundays, Christmas, and three casual leaves that were carried forward from previous months. We have one casual leave a month, and I have not availed any leave for three months continuously.

My attendance scan copy is attached for your reference. My salary is 42,000, but I was paid only 29,806/-.

Full and Final Settlement

Before they paid me anything, I was sent an email to sign the full and final settlement form. I didn't sign it as my incentives of 1 lac 80 thousand were due along with my salary.

I called HR and asked her about my salary and incentives clarification. She said, "That is what you are going to get," because you have not served the notice period of one month. I tried explaining to her that when my husband is not well, how can an employee serve a one-month notice period? She just put down the phone.

Sir, please suggest.

"I tried explaining to her, when my husband is not well, how can an employee serve a one-month notice period? She just put down the phone."

Please bring up your concerns with top management. Dropping the phone when you are sharing a serious personal problem is the height of insensitivity.

It is indicative of the callousness of the entire organization. Anyway, since you've parted ways, it would be wiser to explore the means of getting what was legally due for the services you rendered prior to resignation. I don't know whether you were employed in the category of workman under the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947, or in a supervisory or administrative cadre. If it was in the workman category, you can recover whatever amount is legally due to you, including incentives from the employer, by filing a claim under section 33C(2) of the ID Act before the appropriate Labour Court. In fact, it would be a quicker and easier remedy; otherwise, you can institute a civil suit for the amounts. Better consult an advocate and issue a legal notice to the employer immediately.

Leave cannot be denied on grounds such as yours. The leave can be made up by working after the notice period for those many days. So if you availed seven days of leave, and your last working day is, say, 7th Feb, then you can work until 14th Feb.