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Legal action unfortunately will take time in our country. Plus it is your decision whether to fight the system and take the company down or try bending the rules and get out.

If you just want out, you can try presenting fake doctor certificate about not being able to work or something. The company can't take you to court since the notice period is not entirely legal in the first place.

If you want to fight it out, I'd say first approach some journalist to do a story on the practice. If you can get a couple of stories like that of a young mother made to sit on bench just for the sake of notice period, you have a strong case.

How is that possible? Isn't she eligible for 90 days of maternity leave?

All the notice period clauses which impose unconditional notice period will not get through courts of law. It will generally lie in favor of the employees as no contract can violate your fundamental right.

It is however also dependent upon the terms of the contract and whether the employee is protected by labour laws.

I have personally seen cases where the harassed employee had sent out legal notices and the company immediately settled the matter.

The case of the women being asked to come back to serve 8 day notice period is classic example of irresponsible and improper behavior by the company.

:OT The 90 days would include time before delivery as well. So assuming she went on leave a month before the delivery date, the maternity leave could be over.

In that case, legally she cant do much.

If someone in labor office is "approachable", a call to HR from that office ould do the job for now. However, this can cause problems in future regarding reference checks since HR file would keep indicating this fact.

The new mother being asked to come back after 2 months of delivery is a classic example of how thoughtless and heartless organisations work.
Labour Courts usually have a sympathetic view when it comes to maternity and related women-employer issues.
Although as per their terms and conditions, she needs to serve notice period, not sure if approaching the courts would be such a wise thing to do.
I for one, would be very very skeptical to recruit an employee who has a previous history of pulling companies to court . Howsoever great or competent he is.

Yes you can .. but use it only as last resort .. no point burning bridges.

Not many options left with you, I guess. Even if you decide to excercise your legal option, there is no assurance that you will be able to meet the 45 day deadline (of which you have already lost a few days me thinks), plus you risk the chance of burning the bridges.

Like others mentioned you should keep on pestering the upper mgmt till they relent.

The case of the 2-month old mom, does it not come under harassment at the the workplace? Imagine how much it would "add" to the PR for the firm if this comes out in the media. Delivery is a traumatic experience for the human body and the best companies out there are very liberal about it. I can't guess whats the logice behind having someone tied up to desk when she was obviously not in a project for the previous 3 months. So not a question of the project going for a toss!

Also curious, whats the notice period at the new firm your wife wishes to join? Is it 3 months too? If yes, then one wonders how "professional" they are....

I would like to thank everyone for your valuable suggestions. Just now got to know that the new company has cancelled its offer as we are still not able to give them a final joining date. My wife has already put down her papers in the current organization, we are in a very bad situation now.

Only hope now is that she will be able to get a new job before the 3 months notice period actually ends. I feel 3 months notice period is unethical, we should do something about this. But what? please:

If any of you come to know about an opening for software testing engineer with 2+ years of experience please PM me.

This is pure harassment from the current company.

Please email your wife's resume to mohanswamy@gmail.com. Let me see what I can do.

kadurRacer - 3 months notice is the norm in most companies. There is nothing unethical. When you accept an offer from one company, you are expected to read the dotted lines. Serving notice is always a good/bad for both the organization and the individual.

As for the opening, I have a few in my own team but the location is chennai!

As a fresher when you join a company, you will have very few choices and would be forced to sign whatever the company asks for. At least for my wife in the year 2009-2010 there was no other option but to accept this offer, getting a job was very tough at that time.

3 months notice period may not be unethical but enforcing that rule strictly is unethical. When an employee is willing to give KT in a month and ready to pay for the rest of the notice period, why does the company insist to server complete 3 months notice?

Thanks for the nice gesture, clap: we belong to Bangalore and cannot take up Chennai opportunity right now

The same companies start cribbing when you ask for any joining time greater than a month and you call that ethical?

^^^ Yes. This is something I have never understood. Most organisations , especially in the IT sector would not allow employees to leave before serving the three months notice. But will absolutely sit on the head for a candidate to join within 20-30 days, citing project related exigencies, phoren on site etc..
I dont find anything ethical in this at all.

I belong to the HR fraternity, and have been part of a well-known MNC product IT company. We had an understanding with competitors in the same space that we will live and let live. I.e. anyone leaving their organisation to join us, will serve full notice at your place and someone leaving us to join you will do the same.

On many occasions, believe me, its the Project Manager who will not want to relive the employee, while HR would be still ok to take a deviation.
Sorry, didnt want to start an HR vs Line debate.:Frustrati

Absolutely agree. Any company should honor a potential employee's notice period requirements.

A different perspective - I am the owner of a small (50 people) engineering services company (catering exclusively to US clients). I have a one month notice period for my employees, but my inclination is to relieve a person within one week max. (If he is going to a competitor). Sometimes I have relieved such a person on the same day too.
The reasons for this are:
- Often the employee who is leaving tends to try & justify his decision to others. Try & show the other employees that they are fools not to jump ship too.
- Often this person vitiates the work atmosphere. He has no interest in doing his work & often distracts others.

I am only stating what I have come across in MY limited experience. I am sure that all employees who are leaving a company may not act in a similar manner. (Preparing for the "brickbats" that I may be subjected to from the highly mobile IT crowd :D).

I consider these very strong reasons & even at the risk of affecting my delivery schedules I have relieved people on the spot. We have an extremely low attrition rate & believe one of the reasons for this is that we do not keep "unhappy or dissatisfied" people for long in the company.

(Slightly off topic but:)
Another policy we have is - NEVER offer more salary when a person is leaving. Otherwise resignation is used as a tool to demand more salary.
I tell my people - "We are paying you the best WE CAN. If you get more salary outside, I will be happy to let you go & also rejoice on your good fortune". (This is a tough one to implement since we are competing for employees with the big IT/Engineering services companies).


AJ