Can Annual Increments be Withheld

The Management may have discretion to refuse increments for proper reasons but not otherwise. The grant of annual increment may, however, be withheld as a measure of punishment or for proved inefficiency or any act of misconduct.

 

The Management may have discretion to reject increments for proper reasons but not otherwise. The grant of annual increment may, however, be withheld as a measure of punishment or for proved inefficiency or any act of misconduct. But such punishment can be inflicted only in compliance with the procedural rules of natural justice and in the bona fide exercise of disciplinary power of the employer. Usually the annual increments are subject to the efficiency bar in the incremental scales. Where there is ample evidence on record to show that ad-hoc fixed yearly increments have been allowed by the Management and where such increment has been regarded by both the employer and the workmen as a normal feature of service conditions of the employees notwithstanding the absence of any fixed incremental scales or maximum salaries, a claim by a workman for such an increment as a matter of right must be held to be justified provided he satisfies the other conditions for the grant of increment, viz., of satisfactory record of service for the year in question; Bharat Homeo Pharmacy Ltd. vs. Their Workmen, 1956(1) LLJ 705.