Employee Vanished During Probation: How Should We Handle His Final Settlement?

Hi fellow members, we have a person who joined us for precisely 27 days and has since not turned up for 4 days straight. From other employees, we have heard that he has left and will not be joining, so based on this, we are terminating his employment since he has not turned up nor has he resigned.

Final Settlement Query

My confusion is how do we make his F&F? Do we pay him for the 27 days? Or do we deduct it from the fact that he has not turned up and not served any notice time? He is not a confirmed employee and still in his probation.

Please help me clarify this.

Thanks

There are two facts to be considered here. Firstly, the employee is on probation; you have to pay him for the days he worked. Also, four days of leave without reason should not result in termination; you can give him a maximum of six to ten days.

Secondly, if you wish not to pay him, you can raise the training costs incurred since he was on probation (not advisable). If an employee who left comes to the organization and provides a valid reason for leaving, as HR, you can evaluate his psychology and settle his earnings.

Hope this was helpful.

Thanks,
Nandita

Options for Handling Absentee Employees

There are a few options to deal with this situation:

1) You may add a clause in the offer letter to terminate employment during probation with one day's notice for future use. If the current letter does not have that clause, it will not work out for the current case at hand.

2) You can compute F&F and keep it pending until he sends a query.

3) You can terminate him, compute F&F, and arrange to send a cheque to the employee's last known address.

4) I know a company that follows the idea in point number 2 above.

5) There are companies that try to collect information about absconding employees from the list of references provided by the employee at the time of the interview. If little or no information is available, then they may terminate the employment and compute F&F to facilitate getting a replacement.

6) Send a notice or warning letter to the last known address of the employee, detailing the absenteeism and the actions being planned.

7) It is better to give notice before terminating employment to be on the safer side.