Separation
Separation is a situation when the service agreement of an employee with his/her organisation
comes to an end and employee leaves the organization. In other words, separation is a decision
that the individual and organisation part from each other.
In practice, employees may be separated, or say, may move out of organisation for a variety of
reasons like retirement, resignation, suspension, discharge, dismissal and layoff. Be whatever
the types/forms of separation, separation becomes important and sometimes traumatic event
for both the employee and organisation’.
TYPES OF SEPARATION:
1. Retirement:
Retirement is the major cause of separation of employees from the organisation. It can be
defined as the termination of service of an employee on reaching the age of superannuation.
For example, at present the superannuation age for the teachers working in the Central
Universities is 62 years and in case of some state government employees, it is 58 years. Some
people characterize retirement as ‘role less role’.
Retirement may be of two types:
(i) Compulsory Retirement:
This is the retirement when employees retire compulsorily from service on attaining the age of
superannuation. Some organisations like Universities may have a policy to reappoint
professionals and others who possess rare skills and expertise for a limited time even after
attaining superannuation.
(iii) Voluntary Retirement:
When organisations give option to its employees to retire even before superannuation, it is
called ‘voluntary retirement’. This scheme is termed as, ‘voluntary retirement scheme (VRS)’. Of
late, in their efforts to downsize the employees, organisations by providing certain incentives,
are trying to encourage their employees to opt for voluntary retirement.
2. Resignation:
Resignation is termination of service by an employee by serving a notice, called ‘resignation’ on
the employer. Resignation may be voluntary or involuntary. A voluntary resignation is when an
employee himself/herself decides to resign on the grounds of ill health, marriage, better job
prospects in other organisations, etc.
3. Layoff:
Layoff implies denial of employment to the employees for reasons beyond the control of
employer. Breakdown of machinery, seasonal fluctuations in demand, shortage of power, raw
materials, etc. are the examples of reasons leading to layoff.
According to Section 2 (KKK) of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947, lay off is defined as “the
failure, refusal or inability of an employer, on account of shortage of coal, power or raw
materials or accumulation of stocks or breakdown of machinery or by any other reason, to give
employment to a workman whose name appears on the muster rolls of his industrial
establishment and who has not been retrenched”
4. Retrenchment:
Retrenchment means permanent termination of an employee’s services for economic
reasons.
Retrenchment occurs on account of surplus staff, poor demand for products, general economic
slowdown, etc. It’s worth noticing that termination of services on account of retirement,
winding up of a business, illness or on disciplinary grounds does not constitute retrenchment.
Retrenchment is mainly seen in plantations, agricultural services, forestry and logging, food
products, manufacture of machinery and cotton textile. The reasons pointed out behind
retrenchment were mainly financial stringency and lack of demand for their products.
The Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 makes it obligatory for organisations employing 100 or more
employees to give three months’ notice to the employee to be retrenched and also seek prior
approval of the Government
5. Dismissal:
Dismissal is termination of service of an employee as a punitive measure. This may occur either
on account of unsatisfactory performance or misconduct. Persistent failure on the part of
employee to perform up to the expectations or specified standard is considered as
unsatisfactory performance. Wilful violation of rules and regulation by the employee is treated
as misconduct. Dismissal is a drastic step seriously impairing the earnings and image of the
employee.