Wrongful Termination of Employment
Abhimanyu Pathania
(Querist) 29 April 2010
This query is : Resolved
Hi. I believe my issue is a case of wrongful termination of employment. The background of the case is provided below.
I worked in the Pune office of a pvt IT company, headquartered in Philadelphia U.S. I had joined this organization in May 2008. The way the hierarchy is structured in this company is that your growth within the company (your performance, appraisal, promotion, etc) is monitored by a 'mentor'. I was assigned a mentor from the US office about 6 months back. This person was not fair when it came to assessing the performance of his mentees from the global offices (offices other than in the US). 2 of his previous mentees had quit in the last 6 months as they were not treated fairly by him and deprived of opportunities to grow within the company.
My experience with this person (my mentor) wasn't any different. In spite of being the best performer within the whole group my work wasn't given the recognition it deserved and hence I decided to leave the organization. I had submitted my resignation during this month and my last day was decided to be 11th May 2010.
As part of a quarterly process, I had filled an anonymous (as claimed by the company) feedback form on my mentors performance. There was one point in that feedback that clearly mentioned that he wasn't doing too well as a mentor and needed to improve his performance as one. I think this, coupled with other facts like I was one of his 3rd mentee to quit in a relatively short period of time, disturbed him a lot. He then used a 'situation' to have my employment terminated today.
We had an online meeting with people from all offices logging into a common application using a 'guest login'. This person, my mentor, was the organizer of the meeting. I tried logging in twice using 'Osama Bin Laden' as my guest login-id but he denied those 2 requests. The 3rd time I used my own name and was granted access to the meeting. He used this instance very cleverly and reported this up till the global HR head, who then took a decision to terminate my employment today without giving me any warning/opportunity to express my views. The message conveyed to other members of the team is that I was fired due to 'unprofessional behavior'.
I feel this is a case of wrongful termination. I had been continuously the top performer in my project and never received a bad evaluation from any of my co-workers during my 23 months with the company. I believe the incident mentioned above was just a frivolous excuse to terminate my employment.
Can someone provide me some guidance on this case? I am considering taking my ex-employer to court on this.
Thanks,
Abhimanyu
Devajyoti Barman
(Expert) 29 April 2010
If at the time of your appointment there was an employment agreement signed between you and the person representing your employer then both of you are guided by the that agreement and now your sudden termination can best be analysed under that light. That apart, in absence or in presence of such agreement you can always file a suit for declaration and injunction for giving no effect to the termination letter on several grounds including violation of natural justice.
Abhimanyu Pathania
(Querist) 03 May 2010
Hi Devajyoti,
Thanks for such a prompt reply. I have a couple of questions:
1. I didn't understand the following part of your reply - "..you can always file a suit for declaration and injunction for giving no effect to the termination letter on several grounds including violation of natural justice." Can you please elaborate this point for me?
2. Neither I nor anyone in my family has ever interacted with a lawyer before and we aren't aware of the procedure involved in filing of a case. Can you also let me know the procedure involved in filing a case against my ex-employer?
Again, thanks for your reply. Its a big help.
Guest
(Expert) 11 May 2010
In my view, you have not got a fair chance to win this case against your employer. As you have used the world's most-wanted terrorist's name in your official meeting which clearly amount to 'unprofessional behaviour'. Though they have utilised this as an opportunity, instead of losing the legal fight, concentrate on your next job.
