Seeking Advice on Recovery of Dues from Employer
Hello All, I am sincerely looking for some direction, advice, and even possible representation regarding the recovery of dues from my employer. Please excuse this rather long essay of my grievance.
I was working for this company for just over two years, and throughout that period, the salaries were not being paid on time. However, for the past few months (from Nov '17 until Feb '18), I have not been paid. I work as the international business head for the company, focusing on the Southeast region. During my last trip to Jakarta, which lasted for 3 weeks, I returned on February 10th and resigned on February 13th, indicating the same on WhatsApp. My employer read and responded, saying he would meet me to discuss. Upon meeting him two days later, he refused to accept my resignation letter and asked to meet again the following week to discuss the appropriate transition process. The second meeting never happened. Through a series of messages on WhatsApp and some emails (which were never responded to), I eventually received my resignation letter submitted this February only a couple of days ago.
The reason I am writing this here is that the resignation letter came with a very strange comment. To quote: "Your resignation is accepted from 13th Feb 2018 as communicated to me. Also, since you were not in a position to be in Indonesia till March as desired by the company, your resignation is accepted with a 3-month notice pay deduction." The reason I was unable to be in Indonesia was explained in an email, which I am now pasting verbatim: "Your demand that I be there until March was untenable as, first and foremost, the visit was organized with a time span of 3 weeks. These 3 weeks, as you know, require very high coordination and are planned and set well before our travel with the influencers and decision-makers. My staying there after 3 weeks to get immediate results, as you speak of, would not help in any way, as the people concerned were already met and communicated with. The fact that they are very senior and extremely busy would not appreciate frequent intrusions into their time, and in that, I would do very little to further their course of action to suit us by imposing myself on them."
Secondly, you had not paid me for 3 months earlier (and this was the 4th month running), and upon my inquiry and request for the salary, you nonchalantly informed me that you have "no order bookings and no cash flow." You did not consider that I was away for 3 weeks from home every 45 days and that I had responsibilities at home to address. Your delay in paying my salary was causing extreme situations at home, and in fact, I had to borrow to make ends meet due to the lack of fluidity you were causing. Running a home without a salary for close to 4 months, despite working and not receiving any monetary gain, is highly demoralizing. But you were not worried in the least for me. But I was, and I needed to be home.
Thirdly, you reduced the daily allowance from 125 dollars to 80 dollars (without even informing me), and upon my insistence and your knowledge of that sum being insufficient, you raised it to 100 dollars. Over the last 6 months, you have accompanied me on every trip for a week, and you are aware that taxis cost around 700,000 rupiah (approximately 55 dollars). The remaining 45 dollars would just about suffice for all other expenses with caution. Considering your recent attitude of dismissively suggesting that 80 dollars would suffice, I was not going to put myself in a situation for any unspecified length of time with highly limited resources. In case of an emergency in a foreign country, as was the case in Thailand, I would not have the basic resources to fall back on.
Additionally, despite working for you and traveling for work, and despite me asking you many times to insure me for my travels, you did not do the needful. You asked me to pay the premium of 25,000 from my end and have it reimbursed from you. It was definitely not what a considerate owner would do. Considering the past and my history with you, I would have waited months for the amount. So, though the above points are included, they are by no means limited to my decision to resign, and that’s why when I came back on February 10th, I resigned on February 13th after due deliberation.
In between all of this, he was also communicating to me that the handover needed to be done first to settle my dues. This, he said, is a "must" for my dues to be settled. I clearly asked him what the connection was, as settling my previous month's salaries of November and December '17 and January '18 had no bearing on the handover, as the handover is initiated once one resigns, and this I did only in February 2018. So how were my dues connected to the handover?
However, the handover process has been completed, and despite everything that was transpiring, I have provided a very detailed and comprehensive handover. My contract states a 3-month notice period. My issue is that he says he will not pay me all my dues but will deduct 3 months' advance notice, as mentioned in his comment on my resignation. In doing this, I believe he acted with malicious intent because he did not pay me from November onward until February. When it suited him, he used the backup on pending salary, mentioning my inability to continue in Jakarta as the company desired, as a shallow and superficial means and reason to hold back my dues. Had he paid me the salary, would he have been in a position to hold back anything? So I think this was a conscious and contemplated move!
Any suggestions, please? I would appreciate it if I could reach out personally too. I reside in Powai, Mumbai. Thank you all for this long read. Much appreciated.
Regards, Cyalexko
Hello All, I am sincerely looking for some direction, advice, and even possible representation regarding the recovery of dues from my employer. Please excuse this rather long essay of my grievance.
I was working for this company for just over two years, and throughout that period, the salaries were not being paid on time. However, for the past few months (from Nov '17 until Feb '18), I have not been paid. I work as the international business head for the company, focusing on the Southeast region. During my last trip to Jakarta, which lasted for 3 weeks, I returned on February 10th and resigned on February 13th, indicating the same on WhatsApp. My employer read and responded, saying he would meet me to discuss. Upon meeting him two days later, he refused to accept my resignation letter and asked to meet again the following week to discuss the appropriate transition process. The second meeting never happened. Through a series of messages on WhatsApp and some emails (which were never responded to), I eventually received my resignation letter submitted this February only a couple of days ago.
The reason I am writing this here is that the resignation letter came with a very strange comment. To quote: "Your resignation is accepted from 13th Feb 2018 as communicated to me. Also, since you were not in a position to be in Indonesia till March as desired by the company, your resignation is accepted with a 3-month notice pay deduction." The reason I was unable to be in Indonesia was explained in an email, which I am now pasting verbatim: "Your demand that I be there until March was untenable as, first and foremost, the visit was organized with a time span of 3 weeks. These 3 weeks, as you know, require very high coordination and are planned and set well before our travel with the influencers and decision-makers. My staying there after 3 weeks to get immediate results, as you speak of, would not help in any way, as the people concerned were already met and communicated with. The fact that they are very senior and extremely busy would not appreciate frequent intrusions into their time, and in that, I would do very little to further their course of action to suit us by imposing myself on them."
Secondly, you had not paid me for 3 months earlier (and this was the 4th month running), and upon my inquiry and request for the salary, you nonchalantly informed me that you have "no order bookings and no cash flow." You did not consider that I was away for 3 weeks from home every 45 days and that I had responsibilities at home to address. Your delay in paying my salary was causing extreme situations at home, and in fact, I had to borrow to make ends meet due to the lack of fluidity you were causing. Running a home without a salary for close to 4 months, despite working and not receiving any monetary gain, is highly demoralizing. But you were not worried in the least for me. But I was, and I needed to be home.
Thirdly, you reduced the daily allowance from 125 dollars to 80 dollars (without even informing me), and upon my insistence and your knowledge of that sum being insufficient, you raised it to 100 dollars. Over the last 6 months, you have accompanied me on every trip for a week, and you are aware that taxis cost around 700,000 rupiah (approximately 55 dollars). The remaining 45 dollars would just about suffice for all other expenses with caution. Considering your recent attitude of dismissively suggesting that 80 dollars would suffice, I was not going to put myself in a situation for any unspecified length of time with highly limited resources. In case of an emergency in a foreign country, as was the case in Thailand, I would not have the basic resources to fall back on.
Additionally, despite working for you and traveling for work, and despite me asking you many times to insure me for my travels, you did not do the needful. You asked me to pay the premium of 25,000 from my end and have it reimbursed from you. It was definitely not what a considerate owner would do. Considering the past and my history with you, I would have waited months for the amount. So, though the above points are included, they are by no means limited to my decision to resign, and that’s why when I came back on February 10th, I resigned on February 13th after due deliberation.
In between all of this, he was also communicating to me that the handover needed to be done first to settle my dues. This, he said, is a "must" for my dues to be settled. I clearly asked him what the connection was, as settling my previous month's salaries of November and December '17 and January '18 had no bearing on the handover, as the handover is initiated once one resigns, and this I did only in February 2018. So how were my dues connected to the handover?
However, the handover process has been completed, and despite everything that was transpiring, I have provided a very detailed and comprehensive handover. My contract states a 3-month notice period. My issue is that he says he will not pay me all my dues but will deduct 3 months' advance notice, as mentioned in his comment on my resignation. In doing this, I believe he acted with malicious intent because he did not pay me from November onward until February. When it suited him, he used the backup on pending salary, mentioning my inability to continue in Jakarta as the company desired, as a shallow and superficial means and reason to hold back my dues. Had he paid me the salary, would he have been in a position to hold back anything? So I think this was a conscious and contemplated move!
Any suggestions, please? I would appreciate it if I could reach out personally too. I reside in Powai, Mumbai. Thank you all for this long read. Much appreciated.
Regards, Cyalexko