Employee Refusing to Return Company Accessories: What Can Employers Do?

Hi,

If an employee is not ready to return another employee's accessories, what actions can the employer take against that employee? Please help me.

Dear Ankita,

If an employee is working with the organization, you may take necessary disciplinary action. If they have left the organization, you may recover the amount from their Full and Final settlement.

Thank you.

Dear Ankita, your post lacks clarity. Are you talking about an employee who left the organization without depositing the company's assets? You have written about "accessories." Have you referred to "accessory" as company property or accoutrements? Do you have evidence of the allotment of the company property to the employee?

If the employee left the company without returning company property, then did he abandon duty, or was it a separation under normal circumstances? If the latter, then why was it not detected when an employee took clearance from each department? Has he handed over charge of his position to someone else? If yes, then who signed the handing/taking copy?

There are so many questions associated with your post. Fellow HR members expect a post with sufficient background information as well as posts where spell-check or grammar-check has been done. A post by a member reflects the personal standards of a member.

Thanks,

Dinesh Divekar

Hi Dinesh,

The issue is that we have given a laptop to a female employee who has stopped coming to our office after receiving her salary from us. Now, she is not willing to return our new laptop.

Thank you.

Evidence of Laptop Allotment

Do you have evidence of the allotment of the laptop to the employee? Have you designed the Asset Allocation Form (AAF)? If yes, have you recorded on this form the details of the transaction between your company and the employee? If yes, then send a notice to her. If she does not respond, then send a lawyer's notice. If she does not respond even to that, then lodge a police complaint. While lodging a police complaint, provide details of the employee, such as her employee number, Aadhar card number, etc., to the police authorities.

Lack of Evidence and Future Precautions

If you do not have evidence of asset allocation to the employee, then your case becomes weak, and the retrieval of the laptop from the absconding employee could pose a challenge. Nevertheless, taking a lesson from this episode, start maintaining records of the allotment of company property to employees.

Thanks,
Dinesh Divekar