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PM (PM)     13 June 2012

Employer not paid salary

Hi,

I had joined an organization in Dec 2011, they paid only 1 month salary on time. since Jan 2012 the salary was delayed by 60 days minimum and they stopped paying after March to every employee in the organization citing financial crisis. Despite repeated requests by every employee they released only 30% of 1 month salary out of 3 months salary. Given the circumstances I resigned giving 5 days of notice period which they accepted.

But in full and final they refused to give any amount stating I did not give the notice period. This has been prevelant in the organization since its inception. I am thinking a legal recourse, please advice.

 



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 26 Replies

Kumar Doab (FIN)     13 June 2012

Has the company declared itself as bankrupt or is it closing down?

You should have tendered notice of resignation with effective date of resignation/last day in office and reason for resignation mentioned in it and should have let the company accept it before effective date.

It shall be good if all employees join hands and be witness to each other. You may together approach a competent and experienced service lawyer. Your lawyer may prefer to issue a legal notice.

You should not have signed acceptance on the FNF statement and should have marked comments that FNF statement is not correct and you are accepting the payment given by company under protest. You can do it now also by letter, stating that you had lodged protest to the company personnel who handed over the FNF statement, and mention the detail unpaid wages.

Company has squared off dues by deducting notice pay. All of you may take a stand that wages were not being paid and you were not able to meet both ends and hence you had no other option other to leave and notice pay should be waived off.

You can lodge complaint to Chief Inspector under SE act applicable to your state, O/o Labor Commissioner, Wages Inspector, as per explanation of employee in these act and applicable to you or file a civil suit.

The authority shall decide on Mode of Recovery of Unpaid Wages.

Delhi SE act is enclosed.

7.   Closing     of  an  establishment       to   be  communicated   to  the   Chief   Inspector.

19. Time and conditions for payment of wages.

If your salary is upto Rs.16000/pm

Payment of wages Act:

3. Responsibility for payment  of wages.- Every employer shall be

 responsible for  the payment  to persons  employed by him of all wages

 required to be paid under this Act:

4. Fixation of wage-periods.- (1) Every person responsible for the

 payment of  wages under  section 3  shall fix  periods  (in  this  Act

 referred to  as wage-periods)  in respect of which such wages shall be

 payable.

 

       (2) No wage-period shall exceed one month.

 


Attached File : 7005681 delhi shops & establishments act, 1954.pdf, 7005681 payment of wages act 1936.pdf downloaded: 1417 times
1 Like

Adv.R.P.Chugh (Advocate/Legal Consultant (rpchughadvocatesupremecourt@hotmail.com))     13 June 2012

1. If the resignation without notice was accepted without protest/reservations, then in F & F any departure is not permissble. 

2. Furthermore the company is in gross breach of it's own contractual arrangments for which it is liable to pay damages. 

Serve them a legal notice.

1 Like

Anjuru Chandra Sekhar (Advocate )     14 June 2012

Try filing S.406 Criminal Breach of Trust with police.

1 Like

PM (PM)     14 June 2012

The company has been functioning like this forever and employees are still thinking that they would get their pending salaries soon. The company is not closing or filling for bankcrupty.

 

1. My resignation was accepted with the last day mentioned in the resignation letter without any mention of the notice period.

2. I did not accept the F&F that they prepared, nor did I sign any document. I told they verbally that this F&F is not acceptable to me and in case they want to know what all are the issues I find in the document they should mail me the scanned copy/excel sheet of F&F and I would reply them on the mail itself, which they again refused.

3. The employer thinks he is doing every correct by not paying salary, asking for employees to work overtime

4. There are no rules/procedures in organization - CL/PL leaves are hardly there, notice period is never mentioned at the time of generating offer letter, appraisals are not on time. I think companies like these should be shutdown before they ruin the career of others.

 

Atleast I am thinking of legal action, there are people who do not think that ways and suffer. This gives the employer a boost to continue functioning like this and harass employee.

Kumar Doab (FIN)     14 June 2012

It is usually mentioned on FNF statement also that employee should revert within 1 month or the contents shall be deemed to be accepted/should supply the acceptance within one month.

You may supply a communication immediately, in writing under acknowledgment to appointing authority, MD with a copy to Head-HR stating the FNF statement is wrong ( mention details) and is not accepted by you and any money that is sent to you is received under protest, and demand all due payments by bank DD thru redg . post. Do not leave any loopholes.

PM (PM)     14 June 2012

The employer/HR never gave a soft copy/hard copy of the F&F. It was only shown on the paper and wanted my comments in it without giving me a copy, for which I refused. In my last communication with HR I insisted on knowing the F&F calculation which was not replied by the employer/HR.

Kumar Doab (FIN)     15 June 2012

The conduct of HR is bad. Narrate the incidents in writing under acknowledgment, with detail of full name, designation, department, address, email id, phone number of company personnel including HR, by communication addressed to appointing authority, MD, of the company.

The HR might be in the practice of claiming that FNF statement was shown in office.

Offer letter is given post selection and appointment letter on joining. Has the company not been issuing appointment letter/order and declining to grant leave pay OT wages?

The employees can rake up the issue under SE Act. The eligible employees may also cite Industrial Employment Standing Orders Act.

Employees need to act to get thier dues.

Anjuru Chandra Sekhar (Advocate )     16 June 2012

Employer is avoiding giving F&F statement with a criminal motive to avoid payment of salaries.  S.406 +S.420....book them under IPC.  Don't go with ordinary civil procedures.  If you are in supervisory cadre earning more than Rs.15000/- payment of wages act is not applicable for you.  The only legal recourse left is civil court. If you take recourse to civil court it takes years together to get justice.  So best option is filing criminal case.

PM (PM)     29 August 2012

2 months of running pillar to post nothing seems to be working. The police has refused to take action under the pretext that no criminal case is formed. The labour commissioner office is avoiding answers, citing new excuses everytime. I have filed RTI as well for the action taken by these authorities. What else can be done except civil case?

Present and past employees are not ready to become part of any action against the MD and CEO. He is just sitting there and taking advantage of deaf/dumb employees.

PM (PM)     29 August 2012

1st MD and CEO refused to accept the legal notice, when I sent through mail it was replied back in a month's time stating they have already terminated my services in March 2012. Rather it was me who resigned in May 2012 after non-payment of salary for months. In reply they have refused to pay any amount. Please suggest the next course of action.

Kumar Doab (FIN)     29 August 2012

The compnay delayed payment of wages then paid 30% of the salary and then stopped paying.It had become unworthy of being employed with and it should not enforce notice pay and waive it off.

If the police is not lodging FIR you may approach Police Commissioner and court of law thru your lawyer.

In a given situation employee can invoke the Industrial Employment standing orders Act, Payment of Wages Act, SE Act, and ID Act as per explanation of employee under these Enactments or approach civil court. Designation alone does not decide employee is a workman or not.

Roshan Sriram (Business Development Manager)     01 November 2012

Hi,

I have joined a company on the 10h of september as Business development manager. And there were 10 boys reporting to me. I was heading the marketing team.  The company did not pay the salary for the previous employees which forced the ex employees to lelave the job. Which I heard after joining the company. Later after I worked hard they paid my 20 days salary on the 5th of october after me pleading them to pay my salary. Now that its close to the 5th of november my boss has told me he is not going to pay my salary cause the boys under me did not perform. They have also teminated the boys.What action can take?I am helpless, I have signed the appointment order too. Do help me out if I could do something about this. Regards.

Kumar Doab (FIN)     01 November 2012

Roshan,

Please, always start a new thread.

Is your boss your appointing authority? Or is your boss declared manager/superior in the records under S E act or other enactments?

 

Did the company issue any salary slip or made you sign on a salary voucher/register, and did it compel you to sign in back date?

Has the company provided you the original copy of appointment order?

As per your appointment order, are you employed on commission basis or on salary?

If you are appointed on salary, company has to pay you salary, and it has to pay in time.

You may refer to THE PAYMENT OF WAGES ACT, 1936.

 

If the company is in the habit of not paying the salary/wages all employees { ex employees}   who have left and who have been terminated { They have also teminated the boys.} and you who is being informed that salary shall not be paid may approach Wages Inspector with a written complaint.

Company posts salary in expenses and is under obligation to maintain record and registers and Inspector can call for records. The offense of the company is serious.

The advantage of lodging complaint in writing under proper acknowledgement is that you can peruse thru RTI at virtually no expense to you, and Inspector shall no option but to penalize the company and get you relief.

All employees who have been terminated are entitled to get notice pay and if they peruse they may succeed in getting retrenchment compensation. They may invoke the provisions of ID act and approach o/o Labor commissioner too.

All Ex. employees who have left may submit written representation to the good offices of the company mentioning that they were not being paid the wages and despite there representations in office they were not paid the wages and hence they had no other alternative but to quit and hence they are not at fault and no notice pay should be deducted and notice period/pay if any should be waived off.

If SE Act is applicable to your company as per SE Act if employee has worked for less than 3 months no notice pay may be applicable. As per SE Act of many states Appointment Order is to be issued and if company does not it can be penalized.

Did the company deduct PF, ESIC? From your post it is noted that strength of employees at one time was more than 10.

You can lodge complaint with o/o APFC, RPFC, with a copy to Addl. CPFC, CPFC also.

For ESIC you can approach Inspector under the Act.

 

 13A.

 

 Maintenance of registers and records.

 

      5*[13A. Maintenance  of registers and records .-(1) Every employer

 shall maintain  such registers  and records giving such particulars of

 persons employed by him, the work

No employee including a trainee should be made to work without paying the wages.

You may stop interacting by verbal transaction only and start building the record in your favor by submitting the written representations {gentle}even if by email { from your personal email id or with copy to your email id} addressed to the good offices of your appointing authority, MD, Company Secretary and narrate that the salary of ………month was denied and then paid on dated………for……. Days, although you worked for entire month….and salary for the month of ………is being denied to be paid, by Mr/Ms………as per meeting on dated………and intervention of good offices is sought for relief to you.

Remain gentle and amiable.

Start looking for next job. If at all you resign, submit notice of resignation and avoid abrupt termination.

Did the company display its standing orders at the entrance, gate, and notice board and circulate these to employees.

Confirm if standing orders were applicable to your industry and company and did the company extend these to your designation. If standing orders were applicable and certified standing orders were not formed by your company model standing orders shall apply.

The standing orders are to be displayed at notice board and should be supplied to employees at nominal charges {say Rs.10/}. You can peruse the RTI route and request the PIO at concerned o/o Labor Commissioner {location: redg office or Corporate Office of the company} to supply you the certified copy of the certified standing orders of the company. Model Standing orders may be posted at Dept. of Labor website of your state.

 

If the company do not yield to your representation, it shall be appropriate to approach  a competent and exeprienced labor consultant/service lawyer, well versed with such matters, show all documents and give inputs in person, and let your lawyer evaluate the merits, and suggest appropriate forum if the need be.

The company may yield to legal notice of your lawyer or you may have to agitate in appropriate forum.

 

PM (PM)     09 November 2012

Hi Roshan,

My genuine advice - please leave this job today only. Its not worth waiting that ur boss would pay ur salary or u wud fight a legal battle. In India nothing happens, I have tried it myself. After running from pillar to post for 4 months nothing happened.

If you are thinking how can I leave my hard earned money, remember with every passing day this amount is increasing along with your debt.


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