Facing a Legal Notice for Skipping Notice Period Due to Unfair Attendance Marking – Need Advice!

I'm Ravi. I joined XXX life insurance on 20th July 2015 and resigned on 3rd Nov 2015. When I resigned, I received a mail to serve a 15-day notice period. I refused to do so because my boss used to mark my attendance as absent even when I was present in the office during the 3 months of my job. He also created a separate attendance register for me, in which he marked me as absent. As a result, I did not get to complete the required service period.

Now, I have received a legal notice for the recovery of an amount of 21k. Kindly guide me.

Steps to Address Unpaid Wages and Legal Notices

The operation is simple. If you have any evidence that you went to the office and were not paid even for one day, then prepare a complaint letter. Address it to the labor department of your city. Lodge a complaint with the labor inspector under the Shops and Establishment Act, read along with the Payment of Wages Act.

In response to the notice, contact an advocate and prepare a reply stating that you were ill-treated and unpaid. If you have sufficient proof, then the matter can be lodged as an FIR under the Indian Penal Code.

If this 15-day clause was not in the contract, then it will be very easy for you to move to the labor court. Along with that, a civil case of defamation, wrongful prosecution, and nuisance can be lodged under torts. See all resources on the website below.

The reason cited for your resignation without complying with the notice conditions stipulated in the contract of employment would be of no help to you. When you have the internal employee grievance redress means, what prevented you from availing of it against the alleged act of your Branch Manager instead of taking the extreme decision of resignation would be a vital question against your defense for non-compliance with the notice condition.

After resigning from the job on your own, you cannot seek any remedy now under the respective Shops & Estt Act, even if it applies to the establishment. Therefore, my suggestion would be that it is better to resolve the issue amicably by approaching the top management for a waiver of the notice condition if possible.

Regards