Am I Eligible for Gratuity After a One-Month Break in Service? Seeking Advice!

I worked in an organization for 4 years and 9 months, then resigned and rejoined the same organization after one month. Finally, I resigned after 3 years from rejoining. Am I eligible for gratuity?

This one-month break will interrupt service continuity. I believe that it will make me ineligible for gratuity.

Hello,

Service has been interrupted at your own accord. Therefore, you will not be eligible for Gratuity. However, as you mentioned that you served for 4 years and 9 months, or more precisely, if you worked for 4 years and 240 days, you may claim Gratuity for that period. If denied, then submit an application before the Controlling or Appellate authority for resolution. You may refer to the judgment of the Madras High Court in this regard.

Regards,
Gajendra Verma

For gratuity entitlement, your service must be fully completed continuously for 5 years. After completing 5 years, you will be eligible to receive gratuity. Since you mentioned that your service was discontinued before completing 5 years, you are not eligible for gratuity.

Regards,
Rahul Sikarwar
HRD

If you have taken full and final settlement and rejoined with a new appointment date, you will not be able to receive gratuity for 7 years. However, if you worked for 4 years and nine months and completed 240 days of actual work in each year, you will be eligible for gratuity after 4 years and 9 months.

Dear Narendra,

Please tell us how the one-month gap was treated. Were you reappointed as a fresher with a new appointment order, employee number, etc., or was the earlier acceptance of resignation revoked, and continuity provided? Your reappointment order holds the key, and it is to be critically examined.

I concur with the learned members who are of the view that the questioner is not eligible for gratuity when considering the two spells of service rendered prior to his resignation and after his rejoining as a single stretch of continuous service. Resignation is a lawful way of terminating the contract of employment at the option of the employee, subject to the acceptance of the same by the employer. In such a situation, the resignation, once accepted and acted upon, terminates the contract of employment, thereby extinguishing the employer-employee relationship. The employee would be eligible for gratuity for the service rendered had he completed the qualifying service as per the Gratuity Act. His gratuity should have been claimed and/or paid then and there.

Afterwards, if he joins the service of the same employer again, irrespective of the time gap, it's a fresh service enabled under a new contract of employment between them. If he resigns again, his stake for gratuity is actually limited to the number of years of continuous service rendered by him under the subsequent contract of employment only. Just because the gratuity for the previous spell of service remains unpaid for whatever reason, he cannot club the subsequent service with the previous one and claim gratuity for both. Though the situation visualized by Mr. KK!HR is only hypothetical, the claim for gratuity combining both the spells together as one would be sustainable subject to the subsistence of the conditions mentioned by him.