Pending salary clearance

All employees should join hands and be witness to each other.

All employees may submit a carefully drafted individual representation in writing under acknowledgment addressed to the good office of appointing authority, MD, Company secretary narrating their plight and cover all representation made so far in person, by email, letter etc and demand the payment of dues and wages say within next ……….7 days.

All employees can report the company to Trade Union, Inspector under SE Act, Wages Inspector, and o/o Labor Commissioner at your location. The Inspector can inspect the records.

All employees can mention in notice of resignation that since they are not being paid wages they have no other alternative but to resign. All employees who have resigned can mention in their subsequent representation to authorities that since they were not being paid wages they have no other alternative but to resign.

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. Employee can also approach trade union.

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 were not formed by your company model standing orders shall apply. The situation expressed by you and bond may be in violation of standing orders of the company.

As per standing orders Act Company should provide service certificate and pay the FNF wages on last day in office.

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.

SE Act Delhi:

     21.   Claims   relating   to   wages.—(1)   The   Government   may   by   notification   in   the   Official Gazette,     appoint    any   Commissioner        for   Workmen’s   Compensation          Act  or   other  officer   with experience as a Judge of a Civil Court or as a Stipendiary Magistrate to be the authority to hear and   decide   all   claims   arising   out   of   delayed   payment   or   non-payment   of   earned   wages   of   an

employee employed in any establishment.

     (2) Application for any such claim may be made to the authority appointed under sub-section (1) by the employee himself or any Official of a registered trade union authorized in writing to act on his behalf or any legal practitioner or the Chief Inspector for a direction.

You may check SE Act applicable to your state.

THE PAYMENT OF WAGES ACT, 1936

16.

 Single application in respect of claims from unpaid group.

       16. Single application in    respect of   claims from unpaid group.-

 (1) Employed   persons are    said to   belong to the same unpaid group if

 they are   borne on   the same   establishment and    if 1*[deductions have

 been made   from their   wages in contravention of this Act for the same

 cause and   during the   same wage-period    or periods or if] their wages

 for the same wage-period or periods have remained unpaid after the day

 fixed by section 5.

The penalties can be imposed on employer; salary may be paid with interest, and there is scope of imprisonment of employer.

What about PF contributions? If there is default complaint may be lodged with local o/o PF Commissioner as well.

The company is private limited company and running from last 12 years. There are so many employess who are having contract with the company so they can not go for this process. If they failed to pay to me, there is no any contract between me and company so i can go for legal procedure. Also some employees have their personal problem so they can not involve in it.

Company has not paid employee provident fund from last two years. And still company is deducting PF from our salaries.

What should i do to get my dues cleared on my last working day?

Thanking you.

You have posted that:

--“Company has not paid employee provident fund from last two years. And still company is deducting PF from our salaries.”

You can use it as a handle on employer to extract as much as payment of your dues.

Later you may lodge a complaint with APFC in local o/o PF commissioner, with a copy to RPFC, Addl. CPFC of your state and CPFC.

You can peruse the complaint thru RTI route and may ask the name, designation, address of the PF Inspector/official who has investigated and copy of inspection report and action taken and next date of hearing.

--“  What should i do to get my dues cleared on my last working day?”

You can submit reminder{s} to your appointing authority under acknowledgment, and conclude that you have completed all assignments/tasks on hand and nothing is due at your end and submit the list of dues/payables/documents by company to you and demand that the same be provided to you latest by last day in office.

On your last day in office as per notice, you may submit final resignation, under acknowledgment, and submit company property/hand over charge under proper acknowledgment.

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 were not formed by your company model standing orders shall apply.

You can approach the Labor Officer/ALC with copy of your notice of resignation and seek help.

You can approach Wages Inspector, Inspector under SE Act.

Few days back, i have sent one official mail to our directors that as i am serving my notice period and our company has lot of outstanding amounts to collect from our customers, i will work on it and will try to get maximum outstanding amounts from them. But I will not be part of any new sales activity. And i am doing this task from my first day of notice period. To this mail, i did not get any reply from our directors.  

Last week reporting head is changed. He is from our company and working from last 6 years. On monday i got mail regarding sales target. When i discussed with him about this, he was saying that though you have resigned you have to achieve these targets to get all remaining dues. Before taking charge as Sales Team-Head, whenever i ask him any query he was saying that do not take tension too much. As you are serving your notice period you just relax. Now he is saying that though there is rule and all these things, if you want your all remaining dues you have to achieve it. He also said that he will see how our company/owner will clear my dues on my last day.

Yesterday, same thing i have discussed with my owner but he is also not giving me clear picture about clearance of my dues.

The company is having new policy that if BDE want their salary then they have to achieve their targets. I just want to know though i am serving my notice period from 1st of october, am i doing any illegal/mistake by saying new to sales targets? What are the roles/responsibilities of an employee during his/her notice period? Please let me know if i am doing any mistake.

Thanks & Regards

Vinod Salunkhe

Notice period is counted in service and employee on notice period works like a normal employee and attends to routine duties.

Some companies are known to issue advice to some employees that employee may not attend office and salary shall be paid.

During notice period employer and employee may work to complete the exit formalities, handing over the charge/company property.

It is felt that the communications being sent by you or by company are unwarranted.

You may continue to do the job assigned to you. You may mention if at all you want to write that routine work may be assigned which can be completed within and up to your last day in office i.e. dated……….You may ask in writing seeking reply in writing to whom you should handover the charge/company property under acknowledgment.

If you are not on commission basis your wages have to be paid.

Our company is planning to terminate all back office employees including sales team. The main reason behind it is as we are well educated people and know corporate policies so there are some employees who are raising voice against our owner. Our HR and Sales Head have already resigned because of all these issues.

The owner and Director thinks that from onwards they will not recurit any new employee for sales and back office and will manage it within existing staff. So there is no one to handover my duties.

Though this is a Service providing company and registered in 2005 as private limited, it has so many drawbacks. Still it is running under propritership.  

All affected employees may approach a Labor Consultant/Service lawyer.Your lawyer may opine that the action of the company amounts to retrenchment.All affected employees may join hands and approch o/o Labor Commissioner.