How Should I Handle Unjust Termination and Withheld Salary from My Startup Job?

Hi All, I have over 9 years of working experience. Recently, I joined a private company in Dehradun in July. It's a small startup. All of a sudden, they terminated me one day on false grounds without giving any hearing. They just sent me an email and denied paying me one month's salary, which I had already served. Also, no notice or money in lieu of it has been given. They have no proof for what they claim. I am being mentally harassed by them. Kindly help and advise on what I should do. I went to the police as well, but it was of no use. This issue is causing me a lot of distress.

It is unfortunate to note what has happened with you. However, there must be some reason for your removal. What was your designation? Were you on good terms with the proprietor of the company? Did you unintentionally press his wrong nerve? Did he feel that he was not deriving value commensurate with your position? "There cannot be smoke without fire."

Anyway, sudden termination might have come as a bolt from the blue. Judging by the information you have provided, due process of law does not seem to have been followed. Therefore, at this stage, you may approach the Labour Officer (LO) of the area where your company is located. Explain your problem and let us see whether the labour authorities can help solve your issue. If not, then come back to this forum again.

Thanks,

Dinesh Divekar

Dear friend,

It seems you are very naive or do not want to reveal facts but want advice. What is the designation you hold? Is your company a Ltd or partnership? How big is the turnover and staff? What are the charges of that so-called false grounds? What does your appointment order say? All this relevant information is needed to make a comment on the issue.

Hi, thanks for writing to me. I worked in that company as a Brand Development Head. In this capacity, I developed new business ideas for the company. It's a partnership firm, a small startup in the real estate sector, established in April 2016. Currently, there is no turnover for the company. The company has a bad reputation for hiring and firing and not paying people's salaries, making one excuse or another.

Now, the thing is, I did not like the environment of the company. Hence, I was looking for a change. Somehow, the company owner found out about it and, thinking that I would resign in the near future, wanted to avoid paying me, so he terminated me, claiming that I was leaking company information. The point is, I had generated a new idea for which I was preparing a business plan for the company. I shared this idea with a person I know, seeking his advice. I sent it over email. It was in Word format, in draft form, and of course, since it was only a draft, it was neither signed nor stamped, not on the company's letterhead or in PDF form, nor did it possess any authorized signatories' signatures. It was totally incomplete with no company's data or secret information. The secret information, as it is, cannot be there in the first place because the idea was for starting a new company next year. So, the company mentioned in this idea is not even incorporated or has any legal sanctity. It’s just a concept right now. The company name itself is only in the idea stage. Since my intention was never wrong, when they asked me about this email, I agreed that I shared it because I wanted that person's advice.

Here, I would like to highlight that I have a decent and very nice background of 9+ years of working in good multinational companies and the banking industry before, in Gurgaon, as a Finance Manager, where I had always been a top performer. Also, my integrity holds in good spirit in all my previous employment, which can always be cross-checked. Here also, this company awarded me the Employee of the Month award a few days before all this, so they could never have terminated me on grounds like non-performance, which they had done with other staff. So, they were just trying to find avenues for not paying me. Considering the fact that sharing of ideas takes place everywhere on phones, the internet, or email, I do not find grounds in what they say. The more important point is that it was my own idea, which I gave to them. I was myself working on it. These people are so uninformed they don’t even have any knowledge about it. Just because I had given my idea to them and was working on it, now they say it's their idea.

In this world, no one has proof for saying whose idea it belongs to. Had it been the case that someone else in the company was working on it and I had stolen it from other staff and then sent it to someone outside belonging to the competition, I would have understood the point against me. Or in case the idea (which they claim is theirs) when I shared it outside was implemented by someone else, even then the case would rest against me. But nothing of this sort is there, and the fact is that I myself was working on it, and it was just in a draft and incomplete stage.

So, what should I do next? Should I approach the Labour Office here in Dehradun? Please advise what best can be done. It’s not just about the money, but the fact is that these people need to learn a lesson that they can't just fool around with innocent staff.

Regards

Understanding Your Situation

This is your version of the story, and the management would have its own version for its decision. Generally, decisions are made first, and justifications are found later. As an individual endowed with innovative ideas and managerial abilities, you would have realized sooner or later that you didn't belong there after becoming part of such a messy organization. You might have been nurturing a tendency from the very beginning to leave at the most opportune moment. This would have been noticed by your boss, and he utilized the email episode as a ploy to let you go. Whatever the reason, the way he chose to dismiss you and his refusal to pay your last month's salary are not fair or legally correct.

Legal Recourse

Filing a complaint with the labor department may not be effective if your employer takes a tough stand on the legality of your complaint, especially since you were employed in a managerial or purely supervisory capacity. Therefore, taking civil action for the violation of the terms of the employment contract is the only proper course of action. Consider engaging a service lawyer and following their advice for the recovery of the unpaid salary, along with seeking damages for wrongful dismissal.

Regards

Understanding Company Dynamics and Protecting Your Ideas

Given that this partnership firm was started in April 2016, you must have joined later, meaning your presence here was for just a few months. Based on what you mentioned, having worked earlier for various MNCs, I am not sure how or why you didn't do any checks before joining this company to begin with.

Also, please understand that small companies, including most startups, are very obsessive about any company-related information going out. What may be very small for you could be very critical for them. This is not a right or wrong issue at all; it's just a matter of perception. When the owners or founders aren't very sure of how things will take shape in the future, they tend to guard every piece of information.

Regarding your statement, "Just because I had given my idea to them and was working on it, now they say it's their idea," I am not sure why you are surprised. Isn't that what happens all over the world? Samsung and Apple were in a billion-dollar spat recently for a similar issue. Here, you seem to have someone as your boss with an excessive phobia about credits, or it could be a plain and simple case of avoiding any future legal issues.

As for your last line, "It's not just about the money, but the fact is that these people need to learn a lesson that they can't just fool around with innocent staff," do you have the kind of time to spare to take these guys to court and pay the lawyer, in all probability for a few years, in your eagerness to teach them a lesson?

Rest assured, as far as 'these people learning a lesson' is concerned, everyone gets to learn it, some the soft way (those who realize the mistakes and make amends promptly) and some the hard way.

Like I always say in CiteHR, "what the other guy does is not in your hands. What's in your hands is how you respond to it." The choice is yours, and so are the consequences of the decisions.

If I were you, I would forget about them learning the lessons and focus on me learning my lessons from this experience and move forward in life. The money I lost here is the price I pay to gain this experience.

All the best.

Regards, TS