Transfer without notice - What action should I take?

I worked in a BPO as Customer care executive. Management forced me to report at different location to work without notice and transfer letter. I denied to report and management terminated me. It's clearly written in appointment letter that "Your initial place of work will be in Delhi. However, your service are transferable, and you may be assigned after reasonable notice, to any location in India or abroad where the company or any one of its associates or customers conducts businesses. While on transfer you will be governed by the rules, regulations and conditions of service of that location.
What action should I take?

Dear Simran,
What the Management has done is totally wrong as it is violative of the condition precedent to transfer as well as illegal as the termination order is in breach of the contract of employment. Therefore, you can raise an industrial dispute u/s 2-A(1) of the Industrial Disputes Act,1947 against the management claiming reinstatement with back wages and continuity of service before the Conciliation Officer for the area or file an appeal before the Appellate Authority under your State Shops and Establishments Act , if you had completed the minimum service, if any required under the Act, as the case be.

Hi
First of all when did the termination take place and is there a scope of joining back in case of any reconciliation between the management and you? While taking action may be the last resort and you never know how long it is going to last [your reinstatement] it will be worthwhile to try and explain to the management about the issues that are being faced by you. In case all these have been tried and tested, you may go to the last resort of taking action through legal means. If the management so wishes it may even rescind the termination letter, so just give a chance to peace and try your luck.
Regards

I had followed the escalation matrix to resolve the issue. However, management is not ready to listen.
Should I contact to a lawyer for further action?

Dear colleague,
It is obvious that your management has acted in breach of the contract and law.
Before knocking the doors of the justice, you have to raise the dispute by writing to them giving all facts of the case and demanding your reinstatement drafted preferably by a labour lawyer
If management does not respond, invoke machinery under the Industrial Disputes Act as stated by Shri Umakanthan sir.
Regards,
Vinayak Nagarkar
HR- Consultant

Dear Mr.Vinayak,
I can understand the valid point of your suggestion to give a legal notice before the legal actions contemplated. But the general reaction of such employers is to engage a more promising Lawyer and precipitate the issue with a reply that the employee concerned was not at all a workman under the ID Act or their establishment would not be an establishment under the State S&E Act and the like. Many employers in the ITES Sector have the obsession that employment is dominated by the aspect of free will of the parties to the contract of employment and if the employee fails to obey the orders of the employer, he automatically loses his right to employment. My view, therefore, is that the poster need not waste time anymore as her effort of appeal was not at all considered by the management.

The management considers its appointment order as a piece of paper only as per what has been brought out by poster.
Every word of the contract pertaining to job has been ignored.
Legal action is the only remedy.
Our justice system is slow and antiquated but still we have no choice in the matter.

Dear Umakanthan,
You are well aware that you have to raise the dispute first before taking recourse to the legal machinery and proceed on the basis that you are a workman . Whether someone is workman or non - workman is for court to decide based on evidence led on the the dominant nature of duties performed regardless of any stand taken by the employer.
While my views rhyme with yours, I only thought of emphasizing this aspect.
Regards,
Vinayak Nagarkar
HR- Consultant

Thank you Mr.Vinayak for your response that throws broader light on the issue of raising a dispute by an employee against his/her employer before any statutory authority for the sake of redressal of certain employment grievances. In fact, though our views are rhymed as you rightly observed, your response induces me further to offer my views on the procedural formalities of raising a Grievance/Rights Dispute in contradistinction to that of an Interest/Economic Dispute. My view is that in the absence of specific provision relating to appeal either in the standing orders or in the service regulations in respect of the grievances of an employee like alleged illegal termination, the individual's direct recourse to the statutory authority can not be questioned. In the case of Interest/Economic Disputes, I do agree that there should be a formal demand by the employees to the management and its rejection/non-cognizance by the latter.

Dear Friends,
Customer Care executive comes under the purview of the definition of the workmen under Section 2(s) of the ID Act, hence the aggrieved can easily raise an industrial dispute by approaching the Labour officer of the area.
I have myself handled many such disputes while heading HR for very large BPO in Mumbai & Chennai.
Warm Regards
Bharat Gera
HR Consultant
9322404765