Private-sector lender ICICI Bank has refuted allegations that the bank terminated hundreds of employees in recent months without following due process. In a recent letter to the bank’s chairman, Praveen Chakravarty, chairman of the All India Professionals’ Congress (AIPC), a key department of the Indian National Congress (INC), India’s principal Opposition party, had stated that ICICI Bank’s terminations reflected unethical and corrosive workplace policies.  “We would like to categorically state that we do not terminate any employee of the bank unless there are issues of integrity or misconduct. Being a law-abiding organisation, we follow employment law and practices in both letter and spirit,” the bank said in response to a query from Business Standard.  “With respect to the allegation that we have separated 782 employees, we would like to inform you that these are cases of “voluntary abandonment of services”, the bank said.  According to the letter from Chakravarty, in December 2024, AIPC received a letter signed by 82 ex-employees of the private-sector lender alleging unfair termination from employment by the bank without due process. Following this, an inquiry into the matter by AIPC revealed that as many as 782 employees were terminated by the bank in a span of six months, the letter said. The letter further mentioned that two of the ex-employees of the bank committed suicide in March.  “It is pertinent to note that certain employees were separated from the bank due to gross misconduct like fake financial claims, sexual misconduct, unethical conduct and other serious disciplinary issues,” the bank said, adding that ICICI Bank’s attrition rate had been lowest among private-sector banks for the past three years, which is a testimony to the bank’s responsible and empathetic employee-centric culture.  

“…it appears that a few of the disgruntled employees are misusing the data of “voluntary abandonment of services”, to simply tarnish our image. Their allegations are misleading, and they do not portray the facts,” the bank said.