Drinking on Duty During Probation: Can We Terminate and Withhold Salary?

Hi,

Can we terminate an employee if he is found drinking on company premises while on duty? The employee is currently under probation. He has accepted his mistake and signed a letter regarding this issue. If we decide to terminate him, are we required to pay him for the days he worked, or can we withhold his salary?

Hi all,

Can we terminate an employee if he/she was found drinking during working hours on the company premises? The employee is on probation and has accepted in writing his mistake. If we want to terminate him, are we required to pay him for the number of days he worked?

Termination for Substance Abuse on Company Premises

Does your Employment Letter or Letter of Appointment mention drinking alcohol or any kind of substance abuse on office premises as non-adherence to the Code of Conduct? If yes, then you can dismiss him right away. In case this clause wasn't mentioned there, please consult a lawyer.

No matter how correct it is to terminate someone for consuming alcohol on the office premises, you need to implement it correctly to avoid any kind of repercussions later. Please pay him his dues and avoid withholding any part of his salary. You are setting an example for the rest of the employees. Hence, remain fair and just.

Regards

Dear Sameer,

Consumption of alcoholic drinks during working hours or at the workplace is considered "misconduct" as per the standing orders. Therefore, there should not be a problem for the employee's termination. However, a statement accepting the misconduct by the employee may not be sufficient. What if tomorrow the defaulting employee turns hostile and claims that he gave the statement under duress? Therefore, disciplinary action should also be based on material evidence.

Thanks,

Dinesh Divekar

Drinking alcohol on office premises while on duty is invariably a misconduct. However, it serves you well if it is enumerated as misconduct in the service rules/terms of appointment. It is not proper to terminate an employee, even if he is in a managerial cadre, summarily for an act of misconduct. Therefore, you need to conduct a domestic inquiry after serving a show-cause notice on him before terminating him.

B. Saikumar
HR & Labour Law Advisor

Drinking while on duty is dereliction of duty and needs to be punished. Unfortunately, many cases of drinking go unpunished due to a lack of proof of consuming liquor. I know of cases where employees coolly stated it was sherbet and could not be proven. How do you intend to prove it was liquor?

Give him a chance for him to feel for it and help him to overcome this habit, and talk to his family members. Termination and taking legal action is very easy. Everyone will do it, but we should do something different.

You have come up with a solution from a social standpoint; nevertheless, we need to assess its workability. The business environment in India is fiercely competitive. Competition keeps business persons on their toes. Their primary objective is to satisfy customers, expand business horizons by introducing innovative products or services, and get fair returns on their investment.

Against this backdrop, allocating some funds for a social cause like flood relief or earthquake is one thing, and giving a chance to a defaulting employee to reform is another. Hardly any business person will find worthiness in spending time counseling a delinquent employee to correct his/her behavior. Counseling centers are there only in very big factories. However, their tangible results are not known.

Leadership demands the use of coercive power when the situation merits. The application of law or coercive power helps in creating deterrence, and this very deterrence helps in building the organization's culture as well. When we start counseling a defaulting employee, what if a few other employees also commit some other act of indiscipline? Should we counsel them too?

Institutions are built by nurturing employees. We need to give them remuneration as per market standards, train them, motivate them, and finally engage them. However, nurturing is different from pampering. Today when we accommodate someone's delinquencies, we forever have to be accommodative. Take the example of our country itself. Our first Prime Minister, Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru, allowed the termite of indiscipline to grow under his feet. Had he been very strict right from the beginning, many of today's problems could have been circumvented. Today, indiscipline has become part of our DNA. How to change the blood in the entire body is a challenge.

Argyr has compared discipline with a hot stove. A hot stove gives equal burns irrespective of whose fingers they are. Wisdom dawns when fingers are burnt. A level-headed person understands the risk of straying from the path. Those who take this risk do it at their own peril.

Thanks,

Regards, Dinesh Divekar

The employee is on probation, and he has the audacity to drink on duty. Tomorrow, when he becomes permanent, he will be more brazen. A corrective approach is good, but at times strict action is required to nip trouble in the bud itself.