Indian man stops attending work and is promptly fired, 24 years later

One fine day in 1990, A.K Verma, an assistant executive engineer for the Central Public Works Department, decided that he had enough of going to work, and simply stopped showing up.

This is a common story of how some people quit, it’s seen all over the world on every single day. What is less common is the fact that it took the organisation over two decades to get around to firing Verma for his absence.

Due to India enabling some of the strictest labour laws in the world there can be cases, such as this, where firing an individual for anything but flagrant violation of the law can be an exercise in bureaucratic frustration and time wasting.

After this case was brought to international attention there have attempts by India’s lawmakers to close these loopholes and make it much easier to drop those workers who go on extended non-authorised paid vacations.

It is unknown if Mr Velma is required to pay back all his unearned wages, such an event would likely not end well for Mr Velma, as gaining new employment with nothing but ‘Didn’t show up to work for two and half decades’ doesn’t look particularly impressive on a job application.

Photo Credit: Nikolpetr