4 years and 10 months continuous service rendered by you, could be very-well taken as the minimum service required u/s 4(1) of the Gratuity Act so as entitle you to get gratuity.

Every employer is under an obligation to pay the amount of gratuity within 30 days from the date it becomes active i.e. from the day the person retires or his employment is terminated, to the person to whom the gratuity is awarded.

Send a legal notice to claim the gratuity. In that does not helps, file a complaint before the Controlling Authority under the Payment of Gratuity Act within the area where the employer’s establishment is situated

Hello,

You may please share with me the document which says so that after 4.5 years you will receive the gratuity, after reading the language I can comment on the same.

However, if you are sure that he language of the said term does not talk otherwise then you can go ahead and claim your gratuity.

Regards

1) To be eligible for gratuity, you must complete 5 years continuous service

2) Madras High Court has held that an employee who has completed 4 years and 240 working days in 5th year will be entitled for gratuity i.e. 4 years 10 months and 11 day.

2) you are eligible for gratuity

An employee who has put in his service for a period of 240 days in fifth year will be deemed to have continued in the service for 1 year. Mettus Beardsell Ltd., Madrs Vs. RLC(C) 1998 LLR 1072(Mad)

To be eligible for gratuity, you must complete 5 years continuous service. 6 months of a year can be counted as one year. If you have completed 4 years and 7 months in service, you will get the gratuity.

A judgment of Supreme Court rendered under the provisions of the Industrial Dispute Act in Surendra Kumar Verma vs. Central Govt. Industrial Tribunal,[(1980) (4) S.C.C.433)], it is enough that an employee has a service of 240 days in the preceding 12 months and it is not necessary that he should have completed one whole year’s service. As the definition of continuous service in Industrial Dispute Act and Payment of Gratuity Act are synonymous, the same principal can be adopted under the act also and hence an employee rendering service of 4 year 10months 11days is considered to have completed 5 years continuous service under sec.4(2) and thereby is eligible for gratuity."

Continuous service means uninterrupted service. But, it does include the interruption due to, leave, sickness or accident. The strike, lay-off, or a lockout is also not considered as interruption. Indeed, any interruption which is not due to the fault of the employee, would not be counted.

You can issue a legal notice to the employer citing the relevant laws on this and demand for gratuity and can follow it up through court if the management is not responding properly.