Can a Company Terminate an Employee for Misbehavior During Notice Period? Seeking Guidance on Procedures

Dear Seniors,

We need help if a company can terminate an employee if found misbehaving/indiscipline during the notice period. If yes, what are the procedures to be followed.

Thanks and regards,
JD

Procedure for Terminating an Employee for Misconduct

You have to issue a show-cause notice (provide an opportunity to give an explanation for the said misconduct) and get a reply from him. If the reply is not satisfactory, you have to conduct an inquiry. Based on the inquiry officer's findings, send a second show-cause notice to him, get a reply, and if the reply is not satisfactory, you can terminate him.

If you terminate a workman without following the above procedure, you will be forced to face legal hurdles. An Industrial tribunal in Chennai recently stated that an IT employee is also a workman under the Industrial Disputes Act.

Dear Sir,

Thank you for the advice. We shall follow the showcase notice procedure. However, I hope it is not illegal to issue notices or a termination letter to an employee during the notice period.

Thanks and regards

If the offense is serious enough and needs to be tackled, then issue a show-cause notice. Based on the reply and supporting evidence, take action - including termination.

There is no bar to terminate an employee already on notice period, provided evidence is there, and the matter is serious enough to merit termination or dismissal.

One should be very certain of the seriousness of the offense before resorting to termination.

Not advisable when the employee himself has proposed to leave! You will be inviting legal problems for the company, as his case would be stronger than that of the company. It can very easily be assumed that the company was inclined to deny his terminal dues, if any are justified.

The employee has already resigned. Hence, you can expedite the release. As Nath Rao and Stephen have mentioned, any disciplinary measure will need enough reasons to support that. Remain fair and just. Keep the trail focused only on the corrective measures.

Wish you all the best!

The employee was advised to conduct R&D and procure results for a new project in software. The company reprimanded him for not sharing enough data findings with management, under which he submitted his resignation. Now, we have discovered that he was attempting to transfer data out of the office; we do have some evidence to support this. Is it serious enough for us to terminate him and withhold his dues? We want to avoid legal complications.

Establishing Data Protection Agreements

In the future, can we establish a separate agreement with employees to safeguard company confidential data? Currently, this is only mentioned in the appointment letter.

Thanks and regards,
JD

The employee has taken advantage of the lack of a specific NDA and apparently transferred data. I presume you have digital evidence of such a transfer and it can be proven to have been done by the employee. Whatever details you have written in the last post may not be sufficient to sustain the charge of stealing/transferring data. The best course of action is to let him go. If it becomes a legal battle, you will need a specific data trail and cyber trail to get him punished. Pay him his FnF and close the matter, but draw lessons from this.