How Should Schools Handle Teacher Resignations and Notice Periods During Lockdown?

I am working in a school, and one teacher has resigned from the job by submitting her resignation in the month of February. Ideally, the 3-month notice period would have ended by April, and she would have completed her notice period. However, due to the lockdown starting on 20th March, the school has remained closed since then with uncertainty about when it will reopen. I kindly seek advice on how to handle this situation.

As per the directions by the Central Government under the Disaster Management Act, 2005, all employers of establishments should pay salary/wages to their employees for the entire period of lockdown without any deductions. It implies that the entire stretch of lockdown should be deemed as duty only for all employment purposes. Hence, the notice period gets automatically merged with the lockdown days. If the entire notice period expires within the lockdown period, the employee should be relieved.

Sir, this can also mean that if the notice period (NP) is not covered, the employee has to pay the salary in lieu of the balance days of the NP.

Karuna, it is absolutely unprofessional to just recover the notice period for the balance days and indict an employee like this during the lockdown. There are no balance days—have you not tried to understand this from the above reply from Umakanthan Sir? There is NO notice recovery—her notice period ends on the completion of 3 months from her resignation date, irrespective of the imposition of the lockdown. What is such a business urgency that you want to circumvent labor laws and self-carve your own employment rules?

Recommended: Please stick to the GOI Labour Laws to effectively relieve the lady employee and treat her with utmost respect.