Unpaid Salaries and Dues: What Legal Steps Can My Friend Take Against His Employer?

Hello,

One of my friends is working in an organization engaged in engineering services. They have not been paid their salary for 3 months, and the employers have not paid the statutory dues like PF, PT. They have also not deposited the income tax deducted from employees' salaries for over a 9-month period. What legal options does he have in such a case?

Before you are inundated with responses advising you to approach the executioner to hack the company to pieces, perhaps you should ask your friend if he knows why the company has failed to pay salaries, pay the statutory dues, and failed to deposit the taxes. I seriously doubt the company intentionally would be doing this (I could be wrong and/or prejudiced since I too belong to a company that is in a similar situation) since most companies are still struggling to get out of the slump they have been inadvertently forced into, which leads them to make difficult decisions, and perhaps not always sound decisions.

Your friend should find out from his management what the plans of the company are to rectify this situation, what steps and measures they are taking to ensure that the employees are going to be paid. If he has, perhaps you should post those as well so that people on the forum give you the right responses.

Vani

If your salary is less than Rs. 6500 per month, you could initiate prosecution proceedings before labor authorities for non-payment of salary. If your salary exceeds Rs. 6.5K, then a civil suit for recovery in addition to damages for unreasonable inordinate delay.

If a trade union exists in your company, request them to file an appropriate petition before labor authorities for non-compliance of statutory dues. You could also write to PF authorities regarding non-compliance of PF provisions.