I work for a product development company in the travel domain, and my prior experience was in Banking & Financial Services. Exactly 3 months after joining, one of our QA testers made live hotel bookings on the test environment without realizing it. Nobody realized the mistake, and finally, after 5.5 months, the client sent an email stating that during testing, we had made LIVE bookings totaling USD 638.
Subsequently, the management decided to retrieve the amount from the team, and HR initiated the negotiation process. I asked HR to provide me with the amount the management intended to recover from the team and who, in their opinion, constituted the team. HR mentioned that he would provide the necessary information and then left for campus recruitment.
My salary was credited on a weekend, and the following Monday, I checked the payslip only to find a term "Miscellaneous Deduction" amounting to 10,903 INR. Immediately, I contacted HR to confirm, and my worst fears were confirmed: the management had deducted from my salary without my consent. Upon checking with my team members, I discovered that the deduction had occurred only for me, with no prior notification or subsequent explanation.
I sent an email outlining the scenario, and a discussion took place, but it has been a week, and there has been no response. Adding to the irony, there were a couple of previous incidents where similar incidents had occurred, but the management had resolved them due to the small amounts involved (which I learned after this incident). However, the management failed to implement any checkpoints after the initial incidents to prevent such occurrences. Additionally, there was no communication regarding the previous incidents, which could have been beneficial now.
Furthermore, the management refuses to address this matter privately and opts to keep it under wraps.
Legal Recourse
Do I have any legal recourse to recover my hard-earned money?
Subsequently, the management decided to retrieve the amount from the team, and HR initiated the negotiation process. I asked HR to provide me with the amount the management intended to recover from the team and who, in their opinion, constituted the team. HR mentioned that he would provide the necessary information and then left for campus recruitment.
My salary was credited on a weekend, and the following Monday, I checked the payslip only to find a term "Miscellaneous Deduction" amounting to 10,903 INR. Immediately, I contacted HR to confirm, and my worst fears were confirmed: the management had deducted from my salary without my consent. Upon checking with my team members, I discovered that the deduction had occurred only for me, with no prior notification or subsequent explanation.
I sent an email outlining the scenario, and a discussion took place, but it has been a week, and there has been no response. Adding to the irony, there were a couple of previous incidents where similar incidents had occurred, but the management had resolved them due to the small amounts involved (which I learned after this incident). However, the management failed to implement any checkpoints after the initial incidents to prevent such occurrences. Additionally, there was no communication regarding the previous incidents, which could have been beneficial now.
Furthermore, the management refuses to address this matter privately and opts to keep it under wraps.
Legal Recourse
Do I have any legal recourse to recover my hard-earned money?