Salary Pending from European Company, Company not responding messages

I have worked for Denmark based European company on freelancing basis from India from June 2019 t0 2020.
11 months salary is pending with the company. Company owner told because of Covid they cant able transfer it now. Company owners not responding now on WhatsApp or Skype. Few other freelancing employees from Africa faced same issue. Please advise how to proceed?

Dear Ankur,

Before providing your professional services, did you make a legal agreement with the Danish company? If yes, then what is the legal jurisdiction of that company? Did the company issue the Purchase Order (PO) to you? If yes, then what are the payment terms?

Does the Danish company have an office in India? If yes, have they issued any PO or appointment letter to you?

As a freelancer, you have provided your professional services to the Danish company. However, do you have proof of your services? Has the company acknowledged receipt of your services? Was the client satisfied with the quality of your services or did the client raise any quality issues?

Secondly, you have written that you have worked with the Denmark-based company on a "freelancing basis". If nature of your work was freelance type then how come you are eligible to get the "salary"? I ask this question because freelancers are paid on assignment to assignment basis and the salary is paid to the employees.

Thanks,

Dinesh Divekar

Dear colleague,

It difficult to digest you did not raise the issue of your non- payment of salary well early and waited for good 11 months to wake up.

You need to proceed legally against the company , in terms of your contractual terms , after consulting lawyer. In view of several grey areas in the post, it is difficult to give any valuable advice.

Free lancers working in India for foreign company , generally have written contract stipulating all monetary terms whether called salary or otherwise , for a given assignment which may even extend over one year at times. I have seen this practice for Animation film artists working in India.

Regards,

Vinayak Nagarkar
HR and Employee Relations Consultant