Resigned 4 months before and served notice period but they asked me to pay my total bond amount

Hi, I was in a service agreement with my employer for 2 years. I resigned 4 months before and served the notice period, but they asked me to pay my total bond amount. I was not able to pay, so I took back my resignation. It has only been 20 days since then. Now I am facing a family emergency and need to quit my job. Do I need to serve the notice period again, and do I need to pay the full bond amount for proper relieving? I had a 2-year bond, and I have completed 1 and a half years. Please suggest.

Thank you.

Hi Rajat,

If there is a bond, you need to work for the entire 2 years, else you need to pay the full bond money. Usually, few employers do this to control attrition in their organization (which, in my opinion, is not a good policy as people who want to leave will leave anyway), and they do not listen to any exigency and impose the bond on the employees. In your case, you can only try to convince your employer if they can consider your case; otherwise, you need to pay for it.

Dear Mr. Rajat,

When explaining your family emergency to management, you can request to waive the bond amount, and hopefully, it will be considered. Management asks employees to serve a bond for various reasons in the interest of the organization. If your case is genuine, your request will definitely be considered.

Hey Rajat,

Unfortunately, you have to pay the whole bond amount to the employer if you leave the job before completing 2 years. The only way is to discuss your problem with your employer.

Hi,

You can explain the family situation to the management and ask for a waiver. If the employer accepts, definitely your request for a waiver may be considered.

Hi Rajat,

It's unfortunate that your family emergency is not permitting you to have work continuity. However, the bond conditionality has either legal or financial implications. Your options are:

1. Seek leave on Loss of Pay basis so that you can not only attend to your family needs but also can revert back to your job once things are sorted out on your personal front. This way you will not be willfully breaking the bond.

2. Explain the family circumstance and seek either a waiver or reduction of bond compensation on humanitarian grounds. You may need to establish the genuineness of your circumstance. This may not necessarily work as TCS is very large and their willingness to entertain individual exceptions is not likely, as their concern would be in terms of what precedent they are setting for the thousands of software engineers.

Since your situation is a voluntary resignation by you, the first option may work. But it is important that you place all your facts in writing to TCS and make an offer to proceed on Loss of Pay with a commitment of returning back to work and serve out the balance 6 months of your bond period.

It's another matter whether the concept of bond is a good business/HR practice or otherwise, but your reality is that this was mutually agreed upon by you and TCS 1 1/2 years back.

Warm regards,

Sudev Rao