Employer In The State Of Taking Legal Action Against Me For Breaking Service Agreement

Hello All,

I am Shailesh here & I was working with a BPO since 9 months as an Associate for Transcription. I have been talking to HR, my Team Leader and Manager that I am not doing a job for which I am hired for and also regarding a shift change as I have a small 4 months old baby now. I have almost 8 years of International BPO experience on which I was hired with this company for transcription.

Issue 01 -

Before hiring they have a thing called "Boot Camp" which is for 7 days, and once the candidate completes it successfully, they hire him. In the boot camp the files provided were all English and now when I am an employee of this firm, since 3 months they are giving me regional language work which I am not satisfied with. I have been talking to the manager and Team Leader about this for about 3 months but I didn't receive a proper or reasonable answer. I even ask them for a shift change as I am consistently working in a same shift and there are other employees who are working in their desired shift for giving some reasons. My reasons were genuine but I didn't get any positive response from them.

Issue 02-

Due to this shift and my paternal responsibilities I had to take several leaves in these couple of months which even I feel is wrong however I decided to quit this job as I am doing a job which I've never done or it's out of my job profile which was explained at the time of interview.

- When I talked to them about leaving they are not accepting my resignation and told me to leave without getting a relieving and experience letter which is fine with me, but they are not accepting a resignation.

- At the time of interview they have taken my signatures on a service agreement which is for 2 years and it's printed on a green legal size paper and not any bond like Rs. 10,20 or 100 and they have also taken a blank dated cheque of Rs. 50,000 saying that it's just for the security purpose and they won't en cash it.

- As I didn't receive any positive thing from them I stopped going to office as it's not possible for me to go in that shift due to my own health issue. I receive a call from them to have a talk about why I am not attending an office for which I personally went and met HR and explained everything, on which they replied as " Remove the ID Card, and you can leave". I did it.

- Now they have sent me a letter by register post saying "Breach of Service Agreement" in which they have written that I need to pay them Rs. 50,000 as I am not coming to office.

- When I went to meet HR and I said I can join the firm back but asked them to change my work or shift, they denied as a reason I finally left them.

I didn’t even take the salary for the last month as I can’t go to office. They are threatening me that they will take a legal action against me. I am not in the position and I am not at all going to pay them a penny as my monthly salary was just Rs. 7000. If I work for them for 8 months, the total earning goes to Rs. 56,000 only. How can they ask me to pay Rs. 50,000?

- I request you to give me a proper guidance and steps that even I can initiate legally. They are harassing me now and I am mentally disturbed due to this.

Please guide and advice.

Dear Shaileshpagar
First of all give a request to bank to stop payment for the cheque which you given to company at the timing of joining.
Secondly share the Termination clause of your appointment letter & Bond which you signed at the time joining.
Don't take headache as they can not enforce this bond in court.
Best Regards
Manoj

Hey thanks Manoj,
I have already stopped a cheque payment with ICICI bank and even closed that account 3 months ago. The thing is whatever agreement I've signed, they haven't give me the copy of it. I have asked them several times but they are not giving that agreement copy to me, so that I don't remember the clause.

i want to some clarification from your query
1. how many years or months you have worked
2. reason you quoted is health issues and new baby born so change of shift yes
3. payment through bank or cash
4. how many years mentioned in the signed agreement you say about
here one point you have to note that may be it is a legal green paper after sign of yours they will frank it say 10,20,100 it not only on stamp paper company hr people follow due process and if the same is done then they will show liquidated damages which may say training cost for boot camp and other expenses to train you
thus all this correspondence is on mails or only face to face discussion if you have all correspondence on paper then the company cannot take any action against you

Dear Sailesh,
As suggested by Manoj , you have done the right thing by doing the stop payment of the cheque.
Secondly , It's very sure , they can send you several letters by threatning you that they will take legal action against you. But practically they are not going to take any action against you...
Please be tension free....Nothing is going to happen against you....I have seen lots of such types of cases..