Waving off the remaining notice period of an employee, while he/she serving notice period

Hi All,

I am currently facing a situation in which an employee who has been with the company from last 3 years has resigned. Manager had a detailed discussion with him and then accepted his resignation. We have 2 months of notice period, the employee has completed one month but now we have come to know that he has been unnecessarily talking to his team members and creating negativity within the team. We are not sure what the issue with him is as he already has an offer and it was his decision to resign.
Now the manager wants to wave off the remaining notice period to avoid unnecessary issue within the team. My question is can we wave of remining notice period of an employee even if he is willing to serve the entire notice period. Also, will we require to pay him the remaining one month notice pay? Kindly suggest what is the right approach to tackle this.

Dear friend,

Waiver is the demonstration of the relinquishment of a party's legal right or claim. In the realm of employment, waiver of notice period is, in general, a matter of discretion of the employer. But the move should be on the voluntary initiative of the employer or as a response to the resigning employee's offer to buy out the notice period or request for waiver of the same while accepting his resignation.

In your case, the resignation stands already accepted subject to the condition of the employee serving the entire notice period. During this phase, you need the early exit of the resignee for some obvious reasons. Therefore, it is not a matter of waiver of the notice period but a fresh offer from the employer's side which requires the acceptance of the resigning employee concerned. You can relieve him forthwith by paying the salary for the pending notice period.