retrenchment

aj (Querist) 22 June 2008 This query is : Resolved
small trading firm with only one employee.the employee was employed some 14 years back without appointment letter,then he left without resignation.came back 4 years back and now again leaving.no records are maintained for the employee like attendance,leave,resignation,etc.just that he used to get our bearer cheques encashed in his name for us from time to time.lic policy letters come at our address.some relatives of his working in nearby firms are ready to give their approval in court saying he was working with us.apart from this what else is required by the employee to prove his relationship with us to claim his settlement amount.is it possible for him to forge his appointment letter and blackmail us.is it possible for us to still win the case in the labour office.people are advising to abstrain from accepting his being employed with us

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H. S. Thukral (Expert) 22 June 2008
In this connection my earlier reply to your same query is also referred.
The onus of proving employer-employee relation is on the employee. He can prove the same by any document such as you mentioned that he used get the bearer cheques encashed from the banks. It can also be proved if the employee used to get his personal mail at your address. Your records can be called in the court and on non production of the same an adverse inference can be drawn against you.

I have usually pleaded in such cases that employer did not terminate the services of the employee and he abandoned voluntarily and further offered him to rejoin. In most cases the employee is employed somewhere else on better terms and he has raised the dispute to extract some money and he has no ntention of doing the job. During cross examination of the employee it can be revealed that he had been working somewhere else during the intervening period and the employer is not liable to pay any compensation to him for that period.