How Do You Draft a Termination Letter for Underperforming Telecom Technicians?

Dear All,

Greetings of the day. My name is Sidharth Kumar, and I work as an HR manager in the telecom sector. My company provides technical services to telecom operators such as Airtel, Idea, and Jio. Our primary responsibility is to maintain tower signal strength and networking, for which we have hired technicians. However, it has come to our attention that some technicians are not meeting the company's standards despite several verbal instructions and notices sent via email. Consequently, the mobile network signal in their area frequently weakens, leading to significant financial penalties for the company. As a result, the management has made the decision to terminate these individuals.

I am seeking your support and guidance in drafting the termination/notice letter.

Thank you very much.

Regards,
Sidharth Kumar

Dear Sidharth Kumar,

If the service technicians were not following the laid-down SOPs for mobile tower maintenance, then after giving verbal warnings, you could have issued written warnings. If the employees remain intractable despite the written warnings, the next step is to order a domestic enquiry. Based on the enquiry findings, you can terminate the delinquent employee.

However, in your case, you are jumping from email warnings to termination services. There is a risk of bypassing the domestic enquiry. What if the terminated employees approach the labour court? What defense will you have to prove that the misconduct merited termination without even a domestic enquiry?

If the employee commits a crime, involves in the vandalization of company property, or any misconduct that falls within the purview of "moral turpitude," it merits termination without an enquiry.

In view of this, give a written warning to the concerned employee(s). It could be the last and final warning. If the employee(s) remain incorrigible, then you may proceed with the enquiry and terminate the services of the employee(s).

Thanks,

Dinesh Divekar

Dear Sir, I have drafted this... your suggestion, guidance required.

Subject: Show Cause Cum Warning Letter

Dear Mr. ……….,

This is in reference to the regular complaints we have been receiving against your unacceptable behavior and poor performance. Verbal warnings have been given to you from time to time for the improvement of your performance. Despite all these, there are no signs of improvement. It is important to mention that our nature of work involves maintaining public utility of utmost importance, and there are regulators in the field where performance is continuously monitored and lapses are heavily penalized.

In a recent event, it has been observed that one of your sites, namely JHJAM-197 SIDHGORA-GSM-253, has been down for more than ………., causing the outage and generating huge penalties. On internal inquiry, it was found that this could have been avoided if you had paid due diligence to the work/responsibility assigned to you. In addition to that, you have also not been obeying the instructions given to you for the betterment of your performance. The feedback from your reporting head is totally disappointing.

All this is causing a grave situation in our business due to your sheer negligence. …Company Name… reputation and business have come at stake. All this amounts to grave negligence of the code of conduct and is totally against the policies of the company.

Accordingly, you are hereby required to show cause on or before 03rd June 2021 as to why you should not be dismissed or otherwise punished. Should you fail to submit your explanation as required, it will be presumed that you admit the charges and have no explanation to offer, and the matter will be disposed of without any further reference to you, and the company may take serious action that might also lead to the discontinuation of services.

For ……….

Authorized Signatory

Email Warning vs. Written Warning

@Dinesh ji, isn't an email warning equivalent to a written warning?

Clause in Terms of Employment

@Siddharth, is there any clause in your terms of employment that addresses failure to perform work and follow SOP?