Handling Employee Suicide Cases
By now, your company must have reported the matter to the police. The police will conduct their investigation into the causes of the suicide.
By the way, after death, you cannot "terminate" an employee. A person who has terminated his life, how can you terminate him from the job? In simple words, it is the death of the employee. It appears that the zeal for terminating employees is so strong that few HRs do not want to spare the dead employee as well.
In the meantime, you may conduct a security investigation from your side too. Let your security officer, assisted by another manager, make a list of the personal belongings of the deceased employee, collect these together, and keep them in safe custody. These need to be handed over to the nominee of the employee once the police investigation is over. Even while making a list of the belongings, it is better to involve the nominee of the deceased.
The HR department may issue a circular to all departments to find out whether the deceased employee had any dues or was allotted any company property (like a laptop, mobile phone, etc.). The HR/Admin department may take over the company assets from his residence. Later, the HR department may obtain clearance on his behalf from all departments and find out what dues are against him.
In this FnF, you may pay him salary till his last working day, gratuity if applicable. Deduct any dues from this amount.
Assist the nominee of the employee in getting PF/ESI benefits, as applicable. Provide assistance to the family of the deceased to claim death insurance benefits from insurance companies, credit companies, etc. But before that, the most important task is to get the death certificate. Help the family of the deceased to obtain this certificate.
Thanks,
Dinesh Divekar