What are the laws governing wrongful termination in India

While our jobs are an integral part of our sustenance, sometimes things can go wrong. Our employers can terminate us from the job owing to various reasons. However, sometimes getting fired from the job can happen even when it’s not really a fault of yours. 

Such situations of wrongful termination can be a major financial and emotional blow to an employee and hence it is very important to be aware of the laws governing wrongful termination in India.

With the rise in the economy of India more and more jobs are coming up each day, thus in order to protect the employees from wrongful termination, it is important that one must have an idea about the issue of wrongful termination. 

What is wrongful termination?

One is said to be wrongfully terminated when he/she gets fired without sufficient cause, or when the employer is downsizing the undertaking or due to a personal conflict with the employers. Wrongful termination is one of the most widespread types of employment dispute.

Every year millions of employees are subjected to wrongful termination owing to which they face mental agony and financial instability. In such cases, the employees are completely unaware of the appropriate legal course against it. But before you decide to initiate a legal proceeding you must establish whether the termination was wrongful or not.

Various Kinds of Wrongful Termination

Even though termination is one of the most unpleasant experience, the termination must be conducted in an ethical and legal manner. The various forms of unethical terminations are:

1. Discrimination: If you are being fired because of your age, race, sex, nationality, or such discriminatory grounds, it is a type of wrongful termination. For instance, an employer cannot discriminate and terminate an employee who is suffering from HIV. Any employer who does so would be guilty of wrongful termination.

2. Breach of Contract: If you have signed an employment agreement, you and your employer need to abide to the terms of the agreement. If the employer breaches any of these terms, it is a type of wrongful termination. If any is dismissed by creating a situation in which the employee himself/herself resigns, is a type of wrongful termination of employment.

3.Other factors: If you’ve been fired owing to a workplace dispute, personal grudge, refusal to act on illicit orders of the employer/employee, etc., it is also a type of wrongful termination. An employer cannot fire you due to personal displeasure between you and him/her.

Laws Governing Wrongful Termination

There are several labour and employment laws prevalent in India against wrongful termination of employment. If the wrongful termination is done on the basis of discrimination it is also a violation of fundamental rights of a person enshrined under the Indian Constitution. 

If the wrongful termination of employment is done in violation of any provisions of labour laws, the various labour laws such as the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947, the Workmen's Compensation Act, 1923, State Shops and Establishments Acts etc shall apply. All major labour laws in India deals with wrongful termination of employment. However, within the meaning of ‘workman’, even the managerial sector comes within the application of labour laws in India.

In case of violation of a contractual agreement, you can file a suit against the employer for wrongful termination in the Labour Court for the restoration of job.

The author of this beautiful blog is Advocate Rohit Sharma having an experience of 2 years in handling employment matters from his experience he wants to share this beneficial information for the individuals having any issues with respect to employment matters.