Advise for legal action / termination - employee requested his supervisor to revoke his resignation

Deal All, One of my employees resigned with a notice period of 30 days. Meanwhile, we conducted the interviews and finalized one new candidate for his replacement. After 18 days (the same day the new candidate finalized) he requested his supervisor to revoke his resignation and for a retention bonus)

So his supervisor called me to consider his request and recommended a retention bonus as well. Subsequently, he (the employee) called to discuss and finalize terms (retention bonus), after that he send his confirmation through WhatsApp and also verbally confirmed to his supervisor (verbally) about his decision of staying.

He was informed telephonically that he will receive the increased salary from the current month and will be intimated by mail once the salary is processed. After that, the procedure to appoint a new candidate was withheld.

Surprisingly, after few days, one day he sent mail at night (10:30 PM) that I am not willing to continue and was forced by the management to stay. My notice period is over 3 days ago and by tomorrow I will not come to the organization.

(He was never asked by the supervisor or management to stay, in fact, he requested himself, and as he was working for more than 5 years, management considered his request even after finalizing a new candidate).

He submitted his resignation on paper, and after that most of the discussion, was held over call or WhatsApp, there is only one message of his to HR (on whatsapp), about his decision of staying.

What legal action can be taken in this case, on his request, the hiring of the new candidate was delayed and he left the organization without proper handover.

Now he claimed the salary, experience certificate and gratuity.

Management is willing to terminate him, Please advise.

Sourabh

There is nothing much you can do now. The first resignation has been revoked by the employee and it has been agreed, so it is no longer valid and enforceable. So you can ask for notice period after the second resignation. Being with service of more than five years, the gratuity is recommended to be released. The unpaid salary is to be adjusted against the notice period. You can demand payment for the remaining notice period before issuing experience certificate.

Once you have issued a letter with revised salary and the same is accepted by him, he is governed by the rules and regulations applicable to his category of employees in your company and hence his earlier resignation is null and void. So he has to render 3 months notice period again or deposit 3 months salary in case he desires for a quick exit.

Hi,

When an employee is willing to cancel his resignation it has to be recorded in writing. You should had asked the employee to cancel his resignation letter and in the same letter he should have benn advised to write his willingness to continue. Cancellation through whatsapp may not withstand.. as he might present in his absence somebody mis used his whatsapp. Only thing you can do is to insist for fresh resignation and notice period. Whether he/she will do is a big question mark.