Last year, Abhijit Kharat was on approved medical leave when he received an email from his employer, ICICI Bank, stating that he was “absconding from work”. The 29-year-old was working as a relationship manager with the bank’s Jagdalpur branch in Chhattisgarh. Soon, he was shown the door without any explanation. The bank simply sent him an email stating that he was terminated because he “stopped reporting”.
“I informed the concerned HR person and my reporting manager via email about my medical condition on February 14, 2024. I was then admitted to the ICU. After hospitalisation, I was resting at home as advised by the doctor when, on February 21, I received an email from the bank’s HR department, stating that I was absconding. I found that my medical leave had been revoked without any intimation. I sent multiple emails after that, but there was no response,” Abhijit told TNM.
Within two weeks, Abhijit got an email confirming his “voluntary abandonment” from service. After serving ICICI for 2.5 years, Abhijit was dismissed without a severance package, experience certificate, or relieving letter.
Abhijit later found that he was the 22nd name in a list of 782 employees who were similarly terminated by the bank. Many ex-employees whom the bank illegally terminated, citing absurd reasons or giving no reason at all, are now fighting for justice so that their lives can move forward.
As many as 782 employees “stopped reporting” to ICICI Bank between January and June 2024, resulting in a ‘voluntary abandonment’ of their services, stated a confidential document recently submitted by the private bank to the Regional Labour Commissioner in Delhi. This, along with a detailed list of employees, was presented after a set of former ICICI employees, like Abhijit, approached the regulatory body with complaints of unlawful termination.
Amid allegations, the deaths of two ICICI employees – Yogesh Dixit in Himachal Pradesh and Vivek Samdarshi in Karnataka – by suicide were reported, raising serious questions about the bank’s work culture. Yogesh died on February 27 this year, and Vivek on March 7. Former employees and the families of the deceased allege that exploitation and workplace harassment were the reasons for the deaths.
The list of 782 is just a 6-month data of employees removed from service under the category ‘stopped reporting’. Several former employees told TNM that hundreds of employees were terminated in the past few years on flimsy charges.
‘Left high and dry’
While the sudden loss of employment has pushed Abhijit, a married man, to depend on his father’s income, Guwahati native Dipjyoti Moulick told TNM that he has been dipping into his savings and gratuity after his termination in November 2023. After the death of his father in 2017, Dipjyoti was the only earning member of his family, which consists of his mother and two younger brothers.
“I was on approved medical leave for 15 days. Unexpectedly, I came to know from the loan section that I was terminated. My loan amount was due as they withheld my salary during the medical leave. I immediately contacted my managers, but they didn’t respond to my calls or emails. After that, I emailed HR and the managing director, but there was only silence,” Dipjyoti said.
Distressed, he posted about his experience on social media, only to find out that several ICICI Bank employees had been terminated like him in the last few years. Most terminations happened when the respective employees were on medical leave.
A woman employee from Kerala, who wished to remain anonymous, said that she was forced to resign in October 2024 due to a sudden transfer and a change from operations to sales.
“My promotion and bonus were denied after I took medical leave for an appendectomy and later after a miscarriage. Around six months later, I got transferred to another branch. I was four months pregnant at that time. Since my medical leaves were not taken well by the company, I had not informed my colleagues about the pregnancy, fearing they would withhold my promotion again if they came to know that I would be taking maternity leave. I didn’t feel like requesting to revoke the transfer, and so, I quit,” she said.
When she later came to know about the group of aggrieved ex-employees of ICICI, she joined in. “During my five years at ICICI, I have known several cases in Kerala where employees were either terminated or forced to resign using various forms of harassment,” she alleged.
Whistleblower targeted
Abhinav Rai, an employee at the loan recovery section of the ICICI Bank since 2016, said that he was terminated within days of raising a concern using the whistleblower policy – a vigil mechanism that allows employees to report concerns about breaches of law, policies, misuse of office, or suspected fraud. He faced termination while working as a regional collection manager at the bank’s Noida branch.
Abhinav said that he was a well-performing employee who has received two grade and job role promotions each during his career.
“I noticed some violations of policy and government norms. A defaulter customer was granted a loan again, which is a policy violation. Soon after I blew the whistle, I got a letter demoting me from regional collection manager to collection manager without giving any reason. Meanwhile, nobody responded to my complaint under the whistleblower policy,” he said.
Abhinav sent the email under the whistleblower policy on July 14, 2023. On July 31, he received an email mentioning a transfer, asking him to join another branch in seven days. However, on the next day, Abhinav found that he was unable to access his system.
“The system will declare me absconding if I am not able to update my attendance. The next day, I got an email saying that I had to surrender my laptop, which is unusual in case of transfers. After seven days, I was informed that I was on unauthorised leave. In two weeks, I got another letter, stating that I was absconding. Though I kept mailing them, there was no response. On September 13, they sent me a letter claiming that I took voluntary abandonment,” said Abhinav.
Like the others who faced unlawful terminations, Abhinav too hasn’t received his experience certificate and relieving letter from the bank and hasn’t been able to secure another job so far. He has been pushed into a financial crisis, forcing him to spend from his savings, his provident fund, and gratuity for daily expenses.
“The bank informed me that the documents will be released if I withdraw the complaint,” he said.
An industry trend?
The terminated employees, who connected through social media platforms like LinkedIn, approached the Office of the Chief Labour Commissioner (CLC) in May 2024. Some of them had also filed individual complaints before their respective regional labour commissioners. So far, the Central Labour Commissioner has conducted four hearings on the issue, the last of which was held on April 3, 2025. The representatives of the bank did not turn up at this hearing.
The group found that 782 employees were removed from service in the first half of 2024 through an RTI petition filed with the CLC. “The data for just six months itself was huge, indicating mass termination in the last few years. More surprising was that they have submitted the list of employees terminated under one specific category – ‘stopped reporting’,” said Abhinav.
He detailed how the name of one of their group members terminated in February 2024 was absent from the list. Upon checking, they found that he was terminated on ‘disciplinary grounds’, which is another category, indicating that the total number of terminations could be even higher, listed under different heads.
On November 12, 2024, CLC K Shekhar noted in a summary of the hearing that the ICICI Bank’s terminations were unfair. “After listening to both the parties, it is noticed that the bank management has not adequately complied with the principle of natural justice while initiating action to terminate the services of the complainant and others, thus, the action of the management amounts to unfair labour practices,” the CLC stated.
He further said that the bank management did not consider the advice of the CLC. Instead, the blame was put on the employees, stating that they “committed serious misconduct that affect the reputation, business and functions of the bank,” the CLC observed.
The terminated employees told TNM that they would approach the court if things did not pan out well for them at the CLC hearings.
Last month, a group of 82 former employees of ICICI Bank wrote to the All India Professionals’ Congress (AIPC) explaining the harassment they faced at work. Following this, AIPC chairman Praveen Chakravarthy sent a letter to the Chairman and Board of Directors of ICICI, seeking corrective action.
“There are reasons to believe that these terminations may not be just lawful business practices but perhaps unethical and corrosive workplace practices. I hope the management of ICICI Bank will look into these issues at the earliest and explain these actions,” Praveen stated in the letter. ICICI, however, did not respond to him.
Last week, the aggrieved ex-employees met Rahul Gandhi and submitted a petition. In a press statement issued after the meeting, Rahul stated that their stories revealed a disturbing pattern – workplace harassment, forced transfers, retaliation for exposing unethical lending to NPA violators, and terminations without due process.
“This is not limited to one bank but is the norm across the industry. The Leader of Opposition has promised to be the voice for such professionals across the country,” the AIPC wrote on social media platform X after the meeting.
TNM has sent a detailed questionnaire to ICICI Bank. We will update this story if and when we receive a response.