Let me start this article with a personal note. While practicing in labour laws for companies, I frequently come across in some cases where the service of a workman is terminated by issuing of a notice or salary in lieu of notice since every appointment letter as issued to an employee contains a clause that the employer can terminate his/her services by one month’s notice. When told that such termination will not be legally valid since the Indian labour laws particularly the provisions of Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 provides maximum job security against illegal termination of an employee who happens to be a ‘workman’ by notice as stipulated in the appointment letter. It becomes difficult to convince the clients that it is merely a decorative clause that provides a pleasant satisfaction to an employer that he could dispense with the service of an employee by issuing a notice.
It is further argued that if such a clause of termination by notice is incorporated in the appointment letter which had...
