Employee Fired Without Notice. Salary Stopped. Full & Final Denied. — Insurance Company, Delhi
The Client: A 32-year-old sales manager working at India's leading Insurance company in Delhi for 4 years with consistently good performance ratings.
What Happened: The company was going through a rough financial phase and quietly started cutting costs. One Monday morning, the employee was called into HR, told his role was "no longer needed," and asked to leave the same day. No written termination letter was given. No notice period was offered or paid. His last month's salary was stopped, and the company refused to process his full and final settlement — including earned leave encashment, gratuity, and a pending performance bonus. When he asked for a relieving letter, HR stopped responding to his calls and emails. Without a relieving letter, he couldn't join the new company that had already given him an offer.
What the Evidence we collected from employee:
- The employee had received "Exceeds Expectations" ratings in 3 out of 4 annual reviews
- His employment contract clearly stated a 60-day notice period from either side — the company gave zero days
- The company had terminated 11 other employees the same week. It looked like a mass layoff. but the company was calling each one an "individual termination" to avoid compliance with the Industrial Disputes Act
- No retrenchment compensation was offered as required under labour law for mass layoffs
- The company continued to advertise for the same role on job portals within 2 weeks of his termination — contradicting the claim that the role was "no longer needed"
- The company said his role was "no longer needed" but within 2 weeks, they advertise the same job on job portals. This was the clear evidence that company was looking to replace him, not remove the role
- HR promised to clear all his dues within 15 days — but after that, they stopped picking up his calls and never replied to his emails.
How SPJ Advocates Helped:
- Sent a detailed legal notice to the company demanding immediate release of all pending dues — last month's salary, notice period pay, earned leave encashment, gratuity, performance bonus, and the relieving letter
- Pointed out in the notice that terminating 11+ employees without following the Industrial Disputes Act retrenchment process was a violation of labour law
- Filed a complaint with the Labour Commissioner's office and civil suit for non-payment of dues
- Simultaneously helped the employee explain the situation to his new employer with proper documentation so his offer wasn't revoked
- At the same time, we helped him explain everything to the new company with the right paperwork so he wouldn't lose his new job offer.
- During the case hearing, we presented the job portal advertisements as evidence that the "role elimination" was false
- Negotiated a comprehensive settlement on behalf of the employee
The Result: The company paid the full settlement within 45 days of the legal notice — including last month's salary, 60 days' notice period pay, earned leave encashment, gratuity, and the pending performance bonus. The total amount recovered was approximately Rs. 8.5 lakh. The company also issued a proper relieving letter and experience certificate. The employee successfully joined his new company without further delay.
