Confused About Probation or Confirmation? Seeking Clarity on Employment Status and Final Settlement Issues

I joined the organization on 01 Nov 23, and my appointment letter states that the employee will be on probation for a period of 6 (six) months from the effective date. The company may extend this probationary period at its sole discretion. On successful completion of the probationary period to the company's satisfaction, the employee's employment will be confirmed by the company in writing.

In writing, the company did not provide any hard copy of the confirmation and never took a signature on the confirmation contract. The company sent a group confirmation email to all employees, but no employee was able to reply to accept it.

I resigned from that organization in writing on 01 Sep 23. In the full and final settlement, the company asked me to pay 49,000 as a recovery, even though some of the components were never part of the salary slip (retention bonus).

My manager agreed to relieve me on 22 Sep 23 by written communication over email, and HR is asking me to pay money. Verbally, I conveyed to HR and my manager in June 23 that I would be leaving as soon as possible. Is my employment with the company considered as probation or confirmed? Please help me with this.

Hi, As rightly pointed out by Mr. Dinesh, please check the dates mentioned by you. They are irrelevant.

Confirmation letter process

A confirmation letter cannot be emailed to a group of members. When a letter of appointment or letter of contract is issued individually, confirmation should also be communicated employee-wise, and group confirmation is not valid. Moreover, the joining dates of individuals might vary from one another.

Probation and notice period

As long as the confirmation letter is not issued in writing, it should be construed that you are still on probation. You need to follow the notice period clause applicable during probation. Please discuss the above with your HR and try for an amicable relieving.

Dear HR,

Greetings for the day!

1. Refer to the subject and the following:
(a) ATCOE appointment letter dated 01 Nov 22.
(b) My email dated 01 Sep 23.
(c) Operations Head email dated 11 Sep 23.
(d) My email dated 11 Sep 23.
(e) Operations Head email dated 18 Sep 23.
(f) HR email dated 23 Oct 23.
(g) My email dated 25 Oct 23.
(h) HR email dated 15 Nov 23.
(i) HR email dated 23 Nov 23.

- Could not understand this point.

2. Probation and Confirmation Clause

As per the appointment letter at Para 1(a) ibid, under Clause 3 (Term & Place of Employment) Subclause 3.3 - The employee will be on probation for a period of 6 (six) months from the effective date. This probationary period may be extended by the company at its sole discretion. On successful completion of the probationary period to the satisfaction of the company, the Employee's employment will be confirmed by the company in writing. No ink-signed copy occurred between both parties. Since the entire customer service team was rebadged from Milk Infotech to Apollo Tyres in the month of Nov 2022, instead of giving individual confirmation letters to each of the customer service employees, there was one email sent to all the customer service employees that effective their date of joining in Apollo Tyres COE, their employment status is confirmed.

Regarding your specific query on the clause of the appointment letter, it is clearly mentioned in the appointment letter that the employee's employment will be confirmed by the company in writing (which was done through the email), and there is nowhere mentioned in the appointment letter that an ink-signed copy is required between both parties regarding the confirmation of employment.

3. Working Days and Attendance Policy

The number of working days disclosed in the email at Para 1(f) ibid is 17 days, seeking clarification on the same. As per the attendance policy of ATCOE dated 01 Feb 23, the attendance cycle should start from the 25th of the effective month to the 20th of the upcoming month.

- Could not understand this point.

4. F&F Settlement and Notice Period Recovery

Email at Para 1(f) ibid, F&F settlement contains the recovery of Notice Period after seeking waiver on the email at Para 1(d) ibid. Confirmation of the last working day received via email at Para 1(e) ibid, i.e., 22nd Sep 23. Seeking clarification on Paras 2 and 4.

- Could not understand this point.

5. Salary Components and Recovery Clarification

Email at Para 1(f) ibid, F&F Salary Adv Recovery & Retention Bonus Recovery - both have not been components of the salary slip from Nov 22 to Aug 23, seeking clarification on the same.

- Could not understand this point.

6. In view of the above, I request you to provide clarification on the above-said particulars.

Thanks & Regards,

Gaurav

I have a different take on the matter. Of course, the dates in your post are definitely wrong, or you would be leaving before joining...

The company has given you confirmation of your employment by mail, so there is no doubt you are no longer on probation. It is not necessary for them to send a letter. An email is equal to written communication. There is no need to have your acceptance. The email is legally effective. If you didn't want to be a permanent employee/confirmed, then you should have left at that point.

You may not be able to reply to that mail, but you could always send an email to HR telling them you are not accepting the employment. But you didn't do so.

Your employment terms have certain items they have specified. They will be followed. If they have paid you a retention bonus with an understanding that you are required to stay for a certain period of time, then you are required to pay it back if you are not staying.

If you have not given the full notice period, they are definitely within their rights to ask for recovery of the cost of the notice period.

Your attached reply from HR is something most people will not be able to understand as we do not have the context of the mail. Besides, you are using a lot of abbreviations that we have no idea what they mean.