Varun, an employee in a factory employing more than 60 workers was about to complete 5 years of continuous service for becoming entitled to gratuity. But he joined with the other workers in strike, which resulted in brea

As per Section 2A of the Payment of Gratuity Act, 1972, for the purposes of this Act, an employee shall be said to be in continuous service for a period if he has, for that period, been in uninterrupted service, including service which may be interrupted on account of sickness, accident, leave, absence from duty without leave (not being absence in respect of which an order treating the absence as break in service has been passed in accordance with the standing orders, rules or regulations governing the employees of the establishment), lay-off, strike or a lock-out or cessation of work not due to any fault of the employee, whether such uninterrupted or interrupted service was rendered before or after the commencement of this Act. In the given case, the factory management decided to treat the strike as an illegal strike and terminated Varun from the service. As to the entitlement to gratuity as per Section 4 of the Payment of Gratuity Act, 1972, Varun the employee can appeal to the appropriate authority to treat his participation in strike as absence from duty and not as break in service. If Government passes such an order, then it cannot be treated as break in service though he may lose his pay during the period of strike, then only Varun is eligible to gratuity. (Lalappa Vs Laxmi Vishnu Textile Mills — 1981 Sec 238 (S.2A of the Act, 1972)