This is happenieng way to often.
I have come across such a case even if the person in question is not a student on first job. He is one with experience and is running his own consulting firm..
I have posted the case here on this forum
You may read the complete thread here
https://www.lawyersclubindia.com/forum/details.asp?mod_id=84142&offset=1#.UgFt4ZIwfuw
Or the full details of the case is as follows:
The case in short and concise format is as follows:
Employee is made to spend on his travel for interview. They promise to pay later.
Employee is asked to joing 'soon' under promises of good positions and plum postings. Later they turn out to be false promises.
Employee travels for joining at his own cost. They promise to pay later.
Employee is made to join without appointment letter. They promise to give soon. But they make him sign a Non Disclosure Agreement about the employer's business.
He is then made to do some things which is unethical /immoral. He hesitates. They fire him. Then they issue an apointment letter after firing. They coerce him to sign or else his salary and travel dues will be held back. They want him to sign a 'back dated' appointment letter. While signing they want him to put the date of joining as the date on which the letter was signed. Now since they have fired him they change the clause of the appointment which says notice pay must be paid. So technically now the letter would say "No Notice" is required in the initial period.
They also want him to sign the resignation letter. They want to do this or else his money will not be paid.
He doesn't sign and seeks legal advice.
They keep convincing him to get to the office and sign.
Meanwhile they had given him cheques for his dues. They deliberately do stop payment on the cheques since he did not sign on anything as they wanted.
The employers also threaten to inform the "labour office" as though the employee has done a misconduct. Talk about the pot calling the kettle black. They say "it will go to labour office as a case of termination" . The termination threat is the ultimate weapon used by employers to get employees to toe the line. Many employees succumb to such threat and resign on their own. Now these employers have taken things to the next leve. "informing the labour office".
A lone single innocent employee would be trembling with terror at sudden mention of such phrases. All he can think of is to secure his future. If such an ugly label of "being terminated" is applied against his name he is scared if his future employment will be a problem. The employers can find any reason later. They may find inconsistency in anything at office. If all is perfect then they may go digging into his past and find problems with past work and employers. The story never ends.
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A coincidence: The employee is living in the company guest house when a credit card fraud happens. The guest house of course is in a city in India. The card has been skimmed. The transaction has happened in a city outside of India. Incidentally, this is the same city where the company is headquartered. Now this is a coincidence, right?
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Somebody mentioned why did he not take action.
He is without a job. He is in depressed state. His money has not been cleared. Some other couple of issues have happened with him ( a different related matter). A He wound up his work, his clients and other things. He had to give sufficient notice to them but he did not. He gave shorter notice. He got enticed by false promises. The clients and their goodwill was lost . Difficult to win them back. He left family for another strange city. He faces all this trouble. Then he goes back and has other responsibilities. He approached press. He approached lawyers. He has ailing parents to take care of. A sibling to be treated medically.
All this while he has to hunt for some gainful employment. He already is afraid that if the matter blows out of proportion, one doesn't know how a corrupt employer will react. What they may do. His entire career could be ruined. Even a lawyer warns "Think of it as if you have done some mistake and gave off your money to charity. Forget it and move on. For a few rupees, why do you want to keep fighting a legal case? Those people may ruin career if they are hell bent on it."
Maybe he made a mistake by not taking all this too seriously on a legal level at that time
But the question is : IS IT TOO LATE ?
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What are the legal options available?
What's the next step? Cheque can be resubmitted right?
Can't the employers be made to answer on what grounds they did all this?
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