Feeling Trapped by Unexpected Job Demands: How to Handle Exit Formalities and Legal Notices?

Issue with Job Expectations and Exit Formalities

I joined a Level 3 company and submitted all the documents from my previous employers on the joining day. However, I absconded after five days of working. During the interview, I was specifically asked about night shifts and 24/7 support. I was told it would only be a day shift with no 24/7 support required. After joining, I was informed that I needed to provide support 24/7 as per the company's requirements. This made me uncomfortable, so I decided to leave the job. The immediate next day, I received an email from HR asking for the reason for my absence. I promptly emailed her about the issue, and the conversation ended.

After one week, I received a termination letter from the company requesting me to complete exit formalities and submit the company's assets. I had already submitted the assets and have email proof of the same. I am currently pending with the exit formalities. Subsequently, I received an email regarding Full and Final settlement that states I have to pay 2 lakhs towards recovery of the notice period amount, which is for 45 days during probation. This amount is significant for me. Please suggest how to proceed further.

Handling Legal Notices

If I receive a lawyer's notice on the same matter, what should I do? I am not expecting an experience letter or any other documentation from the employer.

Hi Partner, the details mentioned here seem to be mixed up, so I am putting across what I have understood. You attended the interview and asked whether there would be night shifts or 24/7 support, for which you were informed that this would not be the case. However, after joining the company, you were asked to do the opposite. After you refused and stopped attending work, within one week, a termination notice was issued from the company, and you were asked to pay 2 lakhs for not serving the notice period of 45 days.

Check Employment Terms

The first thing you need to check is whether it has been mentioned in the employment letter that you signed that you have to provide 24/7 support or work in any shift assigned by the company. If there is no such term, then you can let them know that you were not informed and are ready to work only in the day shift. If the term is there in the employment letter, then medical reasons can be cited, and even a medical certificate can help, as many employees face this medical problem.

Termination vs. Dismissal

The second thing is that no company can issue a termination letter and recover the notice period payment from the employee. This is because a termination is a non-voluntary exit and cannot be executed without a proper inquiry having been conducted between the employer and the employee. So, there is a chance that what you have received is actually a dismissal letter stating that you have absconded and hence need to pay the company for the notice period which you have not served. For declaring an employee as absconding, a company should have sent at least three letters of concern to the employee's residential address on record, with at least a duration of 14 days for the employee to respond. After that, a disciplinary inquiry meeting should have been conducted, and if the employee has still not attended the meeting or responded, then in the absence of the employee or ex-parte, the decision is taken as absconding and the dismissal letter issued.

Provide Evidence and Offer Solutions

What you can do is provide your email correspondence with the HR team as evidence that the company was very much in touch with you and that hence this dismissal is unjustified. You can then offer to serve the 45-day notice period citing medical reasons for night shift work and then offer to serve in the day shift. The company then has no other option other than to oblige and allow you to not only serve the 45-day notice period but also to pay you for it.

Hi Nelson, thank you so much for the response. I have had email communication with HR regarding my absence and the reasons behind it. In general, they mentioned in the offer that we need to be flexible as per the project requirements, and it will be project-specific; not every project requires 24/7 support. In my case, yes, it is stated in the offer to work as per the project requirements, but nowhere was it mentioned to provide support 24/7. In the email that I sent to HR, I also mentioned that the business is asking me to provide 24/7 support, which I am not prepared for. If I had been informed about this during the interview itself, I would have rejected the offer at that time. However, a week later, I received a termination letter and then a Full and Final settlement to pay for the notice period amount, which is 2 lakh.

If the appointment letter only states that you should "work as per the project requirement," this becomes a vague terminology that has no legal standing because the company must be specific if they intend to assign an employee to a 24/7 support project. This is especially important when it creates changes in the individual's daily life routine and impacts personal life. Without specific details, whether the requirement is ethical or unethical cannot be judged, and so this term is not binding.

Regarding the termination letter, if the company has already terminated your services, then they cannot seek any recovery from you because the company has initiated the termination, not you resigning from the company. On the other hand, if it is a dismissal letter based on absconding, you can offer to serve the 45-day notice period in the day shift.