Dear Sir/Madam,
You are suggested raise your grievances humbly but firmly. Serve the legal notice if required.
Wrongful severance and settlement
I am a Sr. exec in an Indian entity of a European company, headquartered in France. My employment location is Bangalore. I was rated '4 - Needs Significant Improvements' last year and advised to look for internal or external roles in Jan. I have to provide notice of 3 months, per my employment offer. Given below are the chronology of facts: 1. My senior colleague in America called me in Jan2020 to disclose my rating and the broad feedback. I don't report to her and our roles are similar. She is not part of the same forced ranking curve as me. 2. Since she had no details, I scheduled a meeting with my direct supervisor (he took over from my earlier supervisor in the middle of last year 2019), but he too did not have details like who provided a negative feedback on me to him, when, on which instance, what did I do or not do etc. 3. He gave some examples which were from last April (we follow a Jan - Dec appraisal cycle). So my performance after that did not matter. 4.When I asked why he did not share the feedback immediately last year, his only excuse was that he wanted to observe my performance. In short, he denied me the opportunity to take necessary corrective action. 5.He claims he has heard feedback like "you are difficult to work with" and "you lack the ability to sell", but could not attribute any deals to my failure. 6. He persisted with allocating sales pursuits and responsibility of hosting clients to me in spite of feedback and made no effort to upskill or nominate me for training. 7. When my earlier supervisor quit in July last year, I was stripped of APAC leadership role. This, in spite of the fact that I was the top performer among my peers in handling a portfolio of projects and sales pursuits consistently. There were no documented complaints or escalations against me and my utilization was the topmost globally, in spite of 50% attrition in my team in 2018 which I managed to plug by mid-2019. 8. I was performing step-up roles for 30 months than what I was hired for. My Supervisor has not countered me on my KPIs except my personality as above. 9. Requisition for my back-up was raised last Oct and she joined last Dec. Calibration discussions in my org happen towards end of Oct or by mid Nov for senior levels. So, the decision to ask me to resign seems predetermined than based on my performance! 10. I raised an appeal with HR and provided all evidences as above. Appeal panel has lower grade employees than my supervisor, but from a different unit. It's in process. 11. My HR promised me a settlement of 3 months' notice pay + 3 months' severance but argue that my notice started from Feb when I spoke with them even though I haven't resigned yet! 12. I want to exit this month after appeal since I have a new job, but would like 6 months pay as promised (but from the date of my exit). 13. I have also alleged breach of confidentiality and bias. Please advise next steps based on case studies and applicable Acts.
Asked 4 years ago in Labour
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7 Answers
Given the above background, please answer all questions below: 1. How valid is my appraisal? If my appeal is rejected, what options do I have? 2. Am I right in alleging violation of confidentiality and conflict of interest (please refer point 1 above)? If yes, what recourse do I have? 3. Is my HR justified in claiming that I am already on notice when I have not yet resigned and they have not formally asked me to do so (please refer points 11 and 12 above)? 4. I understand it is a small world and my first efforts should be towards an amicable settlement, but what options do I have to recover my severance dues as agreed? 5. I have minutes / notes documented for every meeting I have had since the beginning of this year. I use Otter app for capturing notes and edit it after hearing the recording. I do not retain the actual recording once I have finalized the notes. I have shared some of these with my company HR as well. Can this be considered a breach of privacy? 6. Please also confirm if my HR has resorted to 'Wrongful termination' by admitting that they have placed me on notice in Feb, without a voluntary resignation, during the pendency of my appeal against my annual performance rating? Haven't they undermined the appeal process with their view? Please answer all questions above and advise next steps with applicable case studies and relevant sections of applicable Acts.
Asked 4 years ago
You may have to go through the employment conditions.
If you feel that the organisation has breached the conditions and have meted you injustice then you can take up the ca with the top management seeking their intervention and reliefs sought by you.
After tht, if you are subjected to Indian laws, then you can file a writ petition before high court venting out your grievances and list out the reliefs you seek from the company on the Indian side who are bound to answer the Indian court even through they are foreign entity.
Take a considered decision about further course of legal action after discussing with a local advocate by apprising him of the entire background and your grievances in person.
1. You cannot insist your company to accept your self appraisal especially when they have already have a report against you, even though it may not be true.
You can consider to take up legal course of action if your representation is rejected.
2. You may concentrate on your relief alone instead of throwing blames against the organisation, it may not be received properly, it may even cause you more adverse effect to your genuine cause.
3. Your HR is not the deciding authority, he or she is acting on the instructions of the top boss hence he or she cannot be held responsible for that, therefore any fight with HR may not produce any favorable decision to you.
4. If you have been terminated without the payment of the dues to you viz., severance allowance, you may fight for tht too in the same writ petition that may be filed before high court
5. If this was not within the purview of your employment then it may naturally be turn agaisnt you with the charges of breaching the privacy laws or for not maintaining the confidentiality etc., they may use more harsh language if they are bent upon only to find faults on you to somehow remove you from this post.
6. As I told earlier, the HR is acting on the instructions of the top boss, hence HR cannot be blamed or held responsible for what is going on or what has happened.
You can opt for legal action if you have been terminated for any wrongful reason.
You need not accept the termination thrust on you, you can first issue a legal notice mentioning the illegalities and injustices meted out to you during the course of yor employment and also about the unlawful termination of your employment, and demand for reinstatement with full wages and benefits.
Failing to respond or comply with the demands made by you, it would be better that you appraoch high court with a writ petition seeking the said reliefs.
You were advised to consult a local advocate with all the relevant papers and information to get a first hand information to your problems.
From the contents what you have posted it clearly appears that you are quarrelsome nature hence the management decided to remove you from the service instead of keeping you with them and face problems through you.
You have not understood the underlying law in this subject hence you look agitated on each and every petty issue which is costing you your job and future career prospects.
Once you get involved in the legal issues or any litigation in this regard, you will realise the facts and the real issues involved especially about the dictatorship in administration in the corporate sector.
1) if your appeal is rejected submit your resignation letter
2) your notice period starts on submitting your resignation letter
3) it is necessary to peruse your appointment letter to advice
4) if you have any email in writing from HR you can claim 6 months salary
5) it is not breach of privacy
6) there is no wrongful termination by merely placing you on notice pending your appeal
Amicable settlement is best option
litigation is long drawn and expensive proposition
1. You should leave current employer with whatever compensation they are providing you if you have another job in hand.
2. As further negotiations with current employer can lead to loss of the bird in your hand.
3. Recording of meeting withour knowledge of your peers is a breach of confidentiality in some organizations.
1.Validity will be decided by the appeallate authority if rejected you need to challenge the said order.
2.Yes you need to demonstrate the same in your case
3. No
4. Litigation if not mutually settled
5. No
6. Yes it's illegal termination
