Liquidated damages clause in appointment letter

Company has to prove the amount to be claimed as liquidated damages.

Rs. 40000/candidate is a huge amount.

Were you inducted in the company and did you sign the inductin report and join the duties?

Did you sign offer letter or appointment letter? Appointment letter is issued post acceptance of the offer of appointment.

What are the reasons for not joining? Did you express the reasons to the comapny. There can be various grounds including the descripttion of the company, work environment, conduct of officials, unreasonable demands of the company like to pledge original certificates without any acknowledgment till the end of employment and/or to sign a bond etc which may deter the candidate from joining the company.

If the comapny issues any letter/notice, you can respond accordingly.

Please find my response:

No I was not inducted into the company and neither did i join the duties.

What they did was, they called me to sign the appointment letter the HR representative asked me to read all the terms and conditions later, first sign on all the pages of appointment letter. So i signed and later on i realized that this clause was there.

My reason for not joining are many:

I got better work at my present company and also thefeedback that I got from this company's ex-employees was not +ve. Furthermore the way HR people dealt my case was not professional at all.

They have send me a notice on their company letter head to pay Rs. 40,000 by 27th Jan (which has already gone).

Please guide me what should I do.

Regards,

Manoj

Company may or may not send notice after letter. You can reply to the letter or you may wait and if the company issues notice you may arrange to send the fitting reply thru your lawyer.

The employee must decline the unreasonable demands of the company. The concerned HR personnel has scored over you. You should have declined to sign the acceptance of the appointment letter on the spot and that too without reading and should have mentioned that you shall go thru carefully the terms and shall consult if required and shall submit the acceptance by your free will. The candidate should run a check on the company before taking a decision to be employed with the company or not.

Many employers mention in the appointment letter that the appointment is subject to clearing the reference check, past record of the employee and in case of any adverse findings the contract can be terminated by the employer without any coat or liability.

Likewise employee also has the right to know about the employer.

The liquidated damages clause was expressed to you in verbal/in offer letter or not? If the liquidated damages clause was not expresses and you were coerced /forced to sign the appointment letter, without examining it, then you have come to know the clause after signing the appointment letter. The conduct of company thru its concerned HR personnel is unfair, unreasonable. This HR personnel knew what he/she is doing still he/she executed this unfair act under instructions or on his/her own will. Both ways he/she has offended the rights of candidate with a notice to trap and exploit.

Company shall have to prove the validity of the amount of Rs.40000/.

Kindly consult elders in family, competent and experienced well wishers, lawyer/law firm before signing a document, as in majority of the situations HR and company has self centered and selfish motives, and there are well knit legal traps.

Valuable advice of learned experts/members is sought.

Thank you for your valuable guidance. I have had challanges seeking a lawyer's consultation, could you please advise me some good corporate lawyer who can help me in this matter and approximate cost that might inoccur in such legal proceedings..

Regards,

Manoj

If you wish to avail the services of LCI lawyers you can visit the ' related lawyers' given on bottom of this web page.

Your near and dear ones at your location can guide you to a competent and experienced service lawyer.