Overworked and Underpaid: Can I Take Legal Action for Unpaid Overtime?

Team, I work for more than 12 hours with no overtime. Now, I am mentally disturbed because, for the last ten months, I have been paying Rs. 1500 to 1800 from a salary of just 15000. Now, I want to take legal action if there is a way.

I need your advice for the problem I am facing. I am working in one of the biggest retail industries in the country. Our nature of business is selling FMCG products. Every two months, we have a stock audit, and the problem is if shrinkage is found to be 0.5% of the sale, I, as a store manager, have to pay the amount from my salary. I don't have any such condition in my appointment letter.

For the last ten months, I have been paying, and now I have realized that there are many system issues too that cause shrinkage, such as wrong inwarding, wrong selling, wrong counting, but all of these are not considered even if found.

Legal Guidance Needed

Please guide me on where to take this issue legally, as no one in management or HR seems least bothered to understand our problem. I asked my HR to provide details of deductions so that I would know how much more deduction is pending and how much I have paid, but I was told that this deduction is not legal, so we can't officially provide you with details. In the salary slip, these deductions are shown as advances against salary.

Regards

Please make an official complaint about the deductions from your salary. Clearly state that you have not taken any advances and demand a refund of the same. If you receive no response within, let's say, 7 days, send a reminder with a copy marked to Senior Management and Labour authorities. Hopefully, this will resolve the issue.

However, a word of caution: you may lose your job if this does not sit well with the senior management.

Regards,
Preetam Deshpande

Understanding Store Manager Responsibilities and Salary Deductions

There are two sides to it.

1. You are the store manager and responsible for accounting for the stock and receipts of sales. You are required to ensure there are no shrinkages. The company is within its rights to recover the loss from your salary.

2. However, if there are problems beyond the control of the particular manager, then as per the Payment of Wages Act and rules of natural justice, they cannot deduct the losses from your salary. Since I do not know what type of stores you are operating, I can't give a definitive answer on which applies to you. You can either keep quiet and accept it, or you can look for another job and move on, or you can try to fight. If you try to fight, the company may decide to terminate you. It depends on what kind of company you are working in.