In a developing and black head country like India there is a need of strict labor or employment laws so as to protect the interests of the employees and to prevent the exploitation of employees by the employer. In India there stands a literacy rate of only about 30% and the rest are poor and illiterate. Since most belong to the class of poor and illiterate, most labors or employees working in India belong to such class owing to which they have a pessimistic approach towards employee rights and hence easily fall as a victim to the employer’s exploitation. Therefore, there is a need of strict labor laws in order to protect the labors or employees from exploitation, provide them with job security and to maintain healthy industrial relations between the employee and the management or employee and the employer. Job Security in today’s times is often disturbed by the wrongful termination of the employee by the employer. Wrongful termination also known as wrongful discharge or wrongful dismissal of employee is done when the employer terminates the employment contract of the employee by unfair means or by giving sufficient cause. In most of the cases the employer terminates the employment contract of the employee under the guise of just grounds. The list of the grounds of wrongful termination is inexhaustible as it varies from place to place, organization to organization and depends on many other factors like work pattern of the organization, terms and conditions enshrined in the employment contract etc. It is to be noted that the ground used for the dismissal of the employee should be uniform for all the employees and should not involve any biasness.
In India there is no standard process that is used to terminate the employee by the employer. It depends upon the terms and conditions regarding termination enshrined in the employment contract which is signed between the employer and the employee say for example in one organization the employer would be required to give the employee a one month show cause notice prior to terminating him and in another organization the employer would be required to give the employee a six month show cause notice prior to terminating him. To check whether the contacts are not against the employee, is arbitrary, unilateral or indeterminate, the labor laws supersede the employment contracts.
Since labor laws falls within the concurrent list therefore the regulation and rules governing the same are regulated at both center and state levels. Earlier the main legislation that governed the same were the The Industrial Disputes Act, 1947, The Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Act, 1946, and The Trade Unions Act, 1926 but now the same has been repealed by the Industrial Relations Code 2020.The employer who is wrongfully terminated can first send a legal notice to the concerned Human Resource Department to ask to resolve the issue amicably and without reaching out to labour courts. Issues that an employee by ways of sending a legal notice to the HR for wrongful termination are as follows:
- Back wages
- Asking for just grounds for termination of the employment contract.
- Benefits Lost due to termination.
- Out-of-pocket losses.
- Injunctive Relief.
- Compensation for damages suffered by you.
- Reliving Letter.
- Compensation for retrenchment.
- Health Insurance if any.
- Provident Fund related issue.
If the issue of the employee is not resolved simply by way of sending a legal notice then after a period of 15 days of sending a legal notice in that case the employee can take the issue to the labour court for matters listed in the second schedule or Industrial Tribunal for the matters listed in the third schedule of the industrial relations code 2020 respectively or can file a civil suit or can also file a summary suit under Order 37 of CPC with the help of a legal advice by a good labour and employment lawyer. Reach out to MYADVO for the best legal advice on the same.
