Feeling Stuck: Can My Son Leave His Job Early Without Facing Legal Trouble?

My son resigned from a famous IT company after working for 4 years. As per the contract, the notice period is 90 days, but he requested to be released from service after serving 30 days. He offered to pay the remaining 60 days' amount for not completing the full notice period. This was his first job since being selected from college campus recruitment, and he now wants to switch for better career prospects and growth.

However, his manager and senior manager did not accept his resignation and are pressuring him to work the full notice period. They have also assigned him an excessive workload that cannot be completed within the remaining 45 days. If he complies with the full notice period, he will lose an opportunity from another company that has offered him a 100% salary increase and promising career advancement.

My son, being a young and inexperienced individual, is currently under significant stress and experiencing depression due to this situation.

I am seeking advice on the employee's rights in this scenario if he chooses not to serve the full notice period and what potential legal implications and consequences could arise.

Your son should first speak to the company that has offered him a job. If that company is ready to wait for 3 months, then it is good. The basic issue is with the relieving order, and no employee, especially one who has worked for 4 years, would like to lose it. Another issue is with regard to background verification. Nowadays, background verification agencies act like detectives investigating some crime. They wish to highlight all the negatives rather than the positives of the candidates. Moreover, the background verification is taken not only from the immediate employer but from all the past employers. This will lead to much more complications in the future.

Even if the new company says that they don't mind not having the relieving order from the existing company, in the future, non-availability of a relieving or service certificate will become a big issue. Therefore, the only solution is an amicable one. There are legal solutions for this. There is no law that says an employee should serve a 3-month notice to leave an organization. Even for employers to terminate the contract of employment with an employee, the notice period prescribed under the Industrial Disputes Act is just 30 days. The 90-day notice from the employer is applicable to factories to which Chapter VB will apply. An IT company will not come under that chapter. Moreover, that provision is for the employer, and nowhere is it said that an employee should give notice. But many establishments compel employees to give notice or serve a notice period. That is illegal per se. But nobody will go for any legal battle because it will bounce back on them only. Therefore, in such a scenario, the employee concerned is forced to remain with the employer, burdened with heavy workloads. In a way, it is bonded labor only. But the fear of background verification and negative feedback from employers through employers' associations force employees to abstain from filing any complaint against such harassment with law enforcement officers. Therefore, my suggestion is if your son is employable, he will get a job, and the employer will be ready to wait for 90 days. If he firmly states that he needs 90 days to complete the tasks assigned to him in the present company, and without completing them, he cannot leave as such, he will get time to join. Please try that way.