I have been working in a company for 10 years.now they have forcefully signed an service agreement by give fear of terminating from service.the agreement says I can not work for any competitor company for next one year and have to give my bank details eg net banking password and username also.
now they are harshing us at workplace.i have got an offer from big compny but they are it's competitor ..now my query is can they take any legal action on me and secondly if yes what can be max punishment if it's legal
Dear Akash,
Service agreement is quite a common thing in any employment and signing it forcefully does not hold any water in any court because you have been working there for a decade. If you did not want to sign, you could have walked out and nobody can force you to sign. Of course, unemployment and dismissal are some fears and threats that will hang on us while we decide to sign or not to sign. These are all individual decisions, depending upon one's compulsion and necessity for the job. Once we get the job and worked for sometime, we cannot turn around and say "I signed the aggreement forcebly".
Coming to the point of clause regarding not working in any competitior company is a very common clause in any job agreement and nothing wrong with it. This clause is inserted by any employer (even the big company which is poaching you from the present company shall ask you to sign it) to ensure that their employees once they get to know all the secrets of the trade go to some compettition and spill the beans affecting their job. So the cool off period of 1 year will give the company to change the tactics or in the natural business process many things change.
Therefore, please read the agreement you have signed and find out the methodology for the employee to resign and follow it to ensure that you are not in trouble.
Taking the bank details of the employee is tolerable to some extent. But demanding the internet banking user id and password is too much. Hope you have changed the pass word after disclosing to the company. Better change it if not done already.
