Chennai Woman's Fight For Compensation After Husband Who Lost Job Dies

While the pandemic witnessed massive job losses, a woman whose husband died of COVID-19 two months after he lost his job is fighting a unique battle with the company, demanding compensation and insurance benefits the family would have been entitled to had he been allowed to serve his notice period.

Kameswari, a former teacher, is shattered. Her husband Ramesh Subramanian, 48, an MBA who worked as a Project Manager, died in June, less than two months after he was allegedly forced to resign by Synamedia Private Ltd, the company he worked for in Chennai. She has a son.

She says her nightmare began on April 8. "The HR connected with Ramesh on Zoom and told him he had to resign as part of their retrenchment drive," she said. Mr Subramanian, she added, "pleaded with them to allow him to serve the mandatory two-month notice period as given in his appointment order so he could find a new job".

A few days later, the company asked him to put in his papers or face termination, which, it said, would jeopardise his career. He handed in his resignation on April 13, and three days later, he was relieved of his duties.

Kameswari says her husband, who earned around Rs 30 lakh a year, was traumatised after losing his job. Things turned worse after he contracted the virus within a month. Though the family spent Rs 18 lakh for his treatment, he died on June 11. She argues that if he had been allowed to serve notice, he would have received insurance benefits and the family would have got more than Rs 1.5 crores.

She has sent a legal notice to the company demanding fair compensation. Fighting back tears, she said, "The company sees only money. What do they lose if they let an employee serve the notice period? Situations like this destroy a family. I don't want this to happen to anyone, that is why I am fighting."

The company has so far come forward to pay only a donation of ₹2 lakh, which the family has not accepted.

Mr Subramanian's brother Kishore says many corporates defy the government directive asking employers to not sack employees amid the pandemic. He says his brother was forced to resign. "If he had resigned on his own without serving the two-month notice, wouldn't the company have asked him to pay two months' salary? My brother was crying, how will I pay my EMIs? We are only demanding what he was deprived of. Why didn't Synamedia let him be on their rolls for two months," Kishore Subramanian questioned.

Synamedia denies Mr Subramanian was forced to resign and claims it was he who had quit and asked to be released immediately for a "a better opportunity." When asked why the company did not make him pay two months' salary, the company's senior HR person Rajesh Kumaraswamy told NDTV, "We had taken a kind approach amid the pandemic. We, in fact, had paid four-month salary to him. Perhaps he did not let his family know about his decision to resign." Denying any retrenchment, Mr Kumaraswamy, however, conceded "there were many voluntary resignations from our company as many great opportunities opened for them."

Mr Subramanian's family denies the company's claim. They have also taken up this issue with the union labour ministry, which they say in a mail has directed the company "to settle the issue positively within stipulated time as per rule."