Is It Fair for My Employer to Withhold My Salary Due to Low Performance? Need Advice!

Hi all,

My employer has withheld my salary for March 2020. First, he asked me to start working from home, but I don't have a laptop or PC, so I couldn't do that. Now, he is holding my salary and stating that my performance is low. This is a small organization, and the owner/boss lives in the USA. What should I do?

Please help.

The very basis of declaring your performance as poor is faulty. The company has to provide a laptop for WFH. To that extent, the action of the company is wrong. Who is your Indian/local boss? Contact him and sort things out. Taking legal action is possible, but reaching the boss in the USA for such issues is impractical. Handle the situation at the local level by first contacting your team leader/manager and proceed accordingly.

Company owner is also an Indian but he lives in the USA. There is a person who manages everything here in India, and he is also registered as a company director. I talked to him, but he said he can't do anything because the owner is not releasing the salary. According to the manager, the owner is saying he will release the salary after the lockdown when the office will reopen.

If the owner is saying that he will release salary after the lockdown, then get this commitment in writing from the manager/owner. If possible, ensure all communications are documented in writing.

Manager said that over the phone call, and I have the recording. Would that work?

In the corrected text, I have added a comma after "phone call" to improve clarity. The rest of the text remains unchanged.