You are not entitled to gratuity
company has not terminated your services due to disablement
3) you tendered your resignation for personal reasons on completing 4 years of services and are not entitled to gratuity
Gratuity claim under section 4(1)(C) of Gratuity Act,1972
Dear Sir, I am Ranganathan, aged 52 years and an Epilepsy patient, undergoing treatment. I joined a private accounting firm in the month of Dec, 2018 and submitted my resignation in Nov,2022 due to work load increase, delivery pressure and disappointment with poor annual salary increment which not in line with work load etc resulted in frequent epilepsy attacks due to too much hours of work and pressure from Jul'2022 and forced to increase dosage of medicines but it still spoiled the health. Finally, I submitted my resignation on 24th Nov,2022 as below: "Dear Nalini, I hereby submit my resignation due to personal reasons with 3 months’ notice period and request you to accept the same. The decision is not easy for me but I found no other option at this situation...! I shall be grateful to the firm for the job opportunity in the bookkeeping team by trusting me and believe I fulfilled their expectations to the best of my knowledge and efforts. I also take this opportunity to convey my thanks to all the personnel who closely worked/working with me during my 4 years of service in Prager Metis and they will always be remembered by me. I conclude that I assure you of fulfilling the HR relieving formalities in order and would be so thankful if you could relieve me from the service as early as possible. Please acknowledge receipt and my best wishes to you all." And claimed my gratuity under section 4(1)(C) "(c) on his death or disablement due to accident or disease: Provided that the completion of continuous service of five years shall not be necessary where the termination of the employment of any employee is due to death or disablement: But the HR department rejected my application mentioning as below: "Dear Mr. Ranganathan, Your prayer for requisition of Gratuity cannot be entertained under any circumstances as disablement under Section 4 means disablement that incapacitates an employee for the work which he was capable of performing before the accident or disease resulting in such disablement. We would like to clarify further that you had tendered your resignation due to personal reasons and we had relieved you on 28-02-203 based on the resignation submitted. Please note that we did not terminate your services due to disablement. Hence the question of disablement is not applicable in your case and therefore your request for Gratuity is not tenable." Now I humbly request your kind feedback and guidance to understand as an Epileptic person Am I eligible for gratuity considering "disablement due to accident or disease" or not eligible as rejected by HR. Thanking you, Yours faithfully, Ranganathan.K
Asked 10 months ago in Labour
15 Answers
And I like to add that the Epilepsy disease is covered under PWD act, 2016 for your reference. Link: https://sarthakindia.org/disability_information_portal/type_of_disability.php
Asked 10 months ago
Complete reply message received from HR department rejecting my gratuity claim, annual bonus for the financial year 2022-23 and phantom stock balance amount. Dear Mr. Ranganathan, This is with reference to your mail requesting gratuity on the grounds of disablement under Payment of Gratuity Act 1972. Section 4 of the Payment of Gratuity Act 1972, to the extent relevant, reads as follows: (1) Gratuity shall be payable to an employee on the termination of his employment after he has rendered continuous service for not less than five years — (a) on his superannuation, or (b) on his retirement or resignation, or (c) on his death or disablement due to accident or disease: Provided that the completion of continuous service of five years shall not be necessary where the termination of the employment of any employee is due to death or disablement. Your prayer for requisition of Gratuity cannot be entertained under any circumstances as disablement under Section 4 means disablement that incapacitates an employee for the work which he was capable of performing before the accident or disease resulting in such disablement. We would like to clarify further that you had tendered your resignation due to personal reasons and we had relieved you on 28-02-203 based on the resignation submitted. Please note that we did not terminate your services due to disablement. Hence the question of disablement is not applicable in your case and therefore your request for Gratuity is not tenable. Furthermore Performance Incentive and Phantom Stock will not be applicable for those who had resigned which you already aware of. Please also note that no communication, receipt of electronic or by any means in this regard shall be entertained by the Company. We always pray for your good and happy Life.
Asked 10 months ago
The wordings of section are
Provided that the completion of continuous service
of five years shall not be necessary where the termination of the employment of any employee is due to death or disablemen
Company has given valid reasons for denying your claim for gratuity
- An employee is eligible to receive gratuity, only if he has completed minimum five years of service with an establishment.
- However, it can be paid before the completion of five years at the death of an employee or if he has become disabled due to accident or disease.
- Further , as per Madras High Court, the gratuity of an employee who completes 4 years and 240 days of service is eligible for gratuity.
- Further, as per Section 2A(1) , an employee shall be said to be in continuous service for a period if he has, for that period, been in uninterrupted service, including service which may be interrupted on account of sickness, accident, leave, absence from duty without leave.
- And further, Section 4(2) of the Payment of Gratuity Act provides that for every completed year of service in excess of six months, the employer shall pay gratuity to an employee for the whole year. That means if an employee works in the establishment for more than 6 months in a year, he shall be eligible to get gratuity , if the employee has had continuous service of 190 / 240 days.
- Since, you have not completed the tenure of 4 years and 240 days , then you are not entitled the get the same , however as your resignation is due to the said disease then you can claim the gratuity on the ground of disability.
- Hence, you can claim the said benefit , after submitting the medical proof of the symptoms or treatments for your epilepsy to show the reason to your inability to continue the work .
An explanation to the clause of the section referred to in your post is given below:
Explanation .— For the purposes of this section, disablement means such disablement as incapacitates an employee for the work which he was capable of performing before the accident or disease resulting in such disablement.
In fact this clause has been clearly mentioned by your employer in their reply to your claim for gratuity. while denying the to pay the claim.
Moreover you have tendered resignation on the grounds of personal reasons and also served the three months notice period.
No where you have mentioned that you are resigning the employment due to health issues and also if the medical issues compelled you to put down yor papers, you would have sought to waive the notice period as well for the said reasons.
Whatever you are not eligible for gratuity by invoking the said provisions of law and since you have not worked for 5 years period you are not eligible for gratuity.
Sir, 1. You mentioned "3) you tendered your resignation for personal reasons on completing 4 years of services and are not entitled to gratuity " (a) Please note that he "health reasons" are well covered within the definition of "Personal reasons". (b) My service was terminated by me vide resignation due to frequent epilepsy attacks and Doctor strictly advised me to reduce the monitor viewing time, but I was forced to work for 9 to 10 hours a day. So the termination was done by me from employee side. As a common man how would I know these legal procedures and act that employer should terminate service etc? (c) Also, at the time resignation I was only concerned about my health and didn't think about any other matters like PF, Gratuity, bonus etc., (d) If my health conditions were good why should I submit my resignation without any new job offer. And I am still unemployed after I relieved on 28/2/2023 to get complete recovery and planning to search for a new job from Aug,2023. (e) Further more, the senior persons in the office know that I am an Epilepsy patient as I got epilepsy attack in the office itself. (f) And moreover, the epilepsy disease is well covered in the PWD act, 2016 (Persons with disabilities) (g) My company rejected my gratuity claim even after I submitted the medical certificate to prove I am a epilepsy patient, undgergoing treatment. please help me.
Asked 10 months ago
Your reference to the disease covered in the 12th point of the referred link covering the persons with disabilities under PWD act 2016;
however please note that this provision or privilege would be extended or applicable only if you were terminated from service due to the said disablement, whereas you have tendered your resignation on the grounds of personal reasons, hence your claim is not maintainable in law.
In your resignation letter you should have mentioned health reasons
2) further your services ought to have been terminated by employer
3) in the present case there is no termination of employment
4) you are not entitled to any gratuity
The employer has categorically explained the provisions of law without leaving any doubt about the non eligibility for gratuity claim.
Any legal action that may linger in your mind or you propose to initiate in furtherance may not fetch you any fruitful result and if you still are adamant of putting anything of that type in motion may result in waste of time, money and energy.
a) Merely stating health reasons will not make sense that you are disabled, besides personal reasons need not be assumed that it covers health issues only.
b) Now you are trying to justify your claim by claiming that you are not knowing the procedures of law, but for your information, ignorance of law cannot be claimed as an excuse.
c) It is not the fault of the employer, you cannot focus employer in the dark light for your fault.
d) Law has no excuse for this
e) Not only senior persons of the organisation even the entire people around you were aware of your health issues, whereas you failed to highlight it in your resignation letter nor you had sought your employer to consider allotting you a light employment or nature of work due to yor health issues, hence the claim now being made by you is just an after thought.
f) Yes, the said disease covered in the 12th point of the referred link covering the persons with disabilities under PWD act 2016; so what, did you make any reference about it in your resignation letter/
g) There is no legal infirmity in the company rejecting your claim, they are legally right but if you plan to sue the company then you will be at loss.
You don’t have to submit it you can challenge any illegal action against you
Attention Mr.T.Kalai Selvan, Advocate. Sir, Please go through the the below references where it is clearly told that the terminating an employee because he has acquired disability is not valid or allowed. So in that case, how come we say the service should be terminated by the employer on the grounds of disability to claim gratuity under Section 4(1)(c) of Gratuity Act. 1. In a Supreme Court judgment, decided in 2003, the Court held that terminating an employee because he has acquired disability and because he is not fit for service in a department is not valid (https://www.canefoundation.org/termination-of-employment-on-acquiring-disability-is-invalid/) 2. Section(20) of PWD act, 2016 -Non-discrimination in employment Provided that, if an employee after acquiring disability is not suitable for the post he was holding, shall be shifted to some other post with the same pay scale and service benefits: Provided further that if it is not possible to adjust the employee against any post, he may be kept on a supernumerary post until a suitable post is available or he attains the age of superannuation, whichever is earlier. Also, I like to add that the medical reasons are well covered within the meaning of personal reasons. And if I get the relieving letter with the remarks of "Relieved due to Epilepsy disease" my future career is lost. Hence, I submitted my resignation mentioning "personal reasons" and served the notice period to get the relieving letter for my 4+ years of hardened service. Because of that how come my original cause of relieving from the service can be denied by the law. Further more, my life requirement is not ended with this gratuity payment by relieving from the company with the reasons of "Relieved due to Epilepsy disease". Kindly note that my disease of epilepsy is related to brain functions and why should I expose it in the public unless and until required and looking forward for your friendly guidance. By Ranganathan [deleted].
Asked 10 months ago
The facts of your case are different
2) in present case you have submitted voluntary resignation
3) it is not your case that employer has terminated your service on grounds of disability
4) hence you are not entitled to gratuity under section 4 (1) c)
The reasons you have stated for resignation was 'personal grounds', hence the employer will not travel beyond your reason/grounds, therefore he accepted your resignation and relieved you on the competition of the notice period.
The employer cannot be found to have committed any fault or wrong action against you.
If you feel that injustice has been done to you (which otherwise is not found), you can approach appropriate legal forum seeking relief and remedy.
You have your remedies intact the said position taken against you is illegal
- My detailed reply is already submitted ,
- You can approach the High Court for getting the same.
Dear Sir,
You should try to explain to the HR that your Epileptic Seizures intensified because of exposure to Solvents in your workplace and try to bring your condition under Occupational diseases, there is a separate schedule regarding the occupational diseases in the Workmen Compensation Act, 1923 and explain to them that during the attacks of Epilepsy, the body gets completely disabled and stress that epilepsy can lead to permanent brain damage if neglected and that all you were trying to do was taking precautions for not becoming brain dead and lead a totally disabled life. Kindly show that because of Epilepsy, you go through a total partial disablement during the attacks. You can actually produce studies conducted by different universities on how epilepsy gets intensified because of exposure to solvents (glue, CFC, Acetone, Benzene etc) and how during the work tenure you suffered recurrent attacks because of exposure to solvents. If the HR replies vaguely, you can file an Application under Sec 4(1)(c) of the Payment of Gratuity Act, 1923 before the Gratuity Controlling Authority in Chennai. Please include the above points that I have highlighted in your petition and then please employ a good Advocate who can lead the case with thoughts similar to mine. Your case shall turn out to be a word battle and a hard battle beneficial to so many people who are similarly disabled.
Regards,
Sanmathi S. Rao
