Can You Prove an Unprofessional Work Environment in Court and Seek Justice Before 240 Days?

Evidence of Unprofessional Work Environment

When a supervisor and the working environment involve shouting on the floor and the use of profane words by stakeholders, can recordings such as pen camera, audio, or video of the supervisor and colleagues' statements about the unprofessional work environment be sufficient to prove in court under sealed cover (without exposing to the external world before judgment)?

Compensation for Unfair Termination

When an employee's termination is abrupt, unfair, and illegal after requesting a professional work environment and communicating to HR about verbal abuse and an unprofessional work environment, what compensation is available for mental agony, loss of reputation, and employment loss, apart from back wages, with a prayer for reinstatement?

Employment Duration Requirement for Justice

Does the employee have to complete 240 days of employment to seek justice?

VOIP IT Union

Hi Voipitunion,

Evidence in Court

The admissibility and sufficiency of evidence in court can vary depending on the jurisdiction and specific circumstances. In many cases, recordings and documentation can be valuable evidence. However, the acceptance of such evidence in court would depend on the laws and regulations in your jurisdiction.

Consult with a legal professional to understand the specific rules regarding the admissibility of recordings and documentation in your area. In some cases, even if evidence is admissible, there may be limitations on how it can be used.

Compensation for Unfair Termination

Compensation for mental agony, loss of reputation, and employment loss typically depends on the laws in your jurisdiction and the specifics of your case.

Consult with a lawyer well-versed in labor laws to understand the specific legal remedies available to you. Compensation may include back wages, reinstatement, and damages for emotional distress or other losses. The 240-day reference seems to be related to certain labor laws, but it's crucial to understand the specific laws applicable to your situation.

Consulting a Labour Lawyer

If you believe you have been unfairly treated, consulting with an employment lawyer is essential. They can provide guidance on the specific laws applicable to your case, help you understand your rights, and advise you on the best course of action.

Confidentiality in Court Proceedings

Courts often have procedures for handling sensitive information under sealed covers to protect the privacy of individuals involved. However, the specific rules may vary, so it's important to discuss confidentiality concerns with your legal counsel. Labor laws can vary significantly between jurisdictions, and the advice provided here is general in nature.

Thanks

"Understanding Unprofessional Work Environment

"Unprofessional work environment" is a term that cannot be precisely defined as it is relative and context-dependent. It can refer to situations involving the use of inappropriate language, unethical gestures, etc., which can serve as evidence if mentioned in a charge sheet. Recordings can be presented in an open forum, whether before an inquiry officer or a presiding officer of a labor court.

Seeking Justice for Employees

An employee does not need to work for 240 days to seek justice. Even a probationer can raise a dispute and seek justice if terminated while a dispute is pending, as this is illegal. However, an employer can retrench an employee who has not completed 240 days without notice or notice pay as required under section 25F of the ID Act. Retrenchment should follow the principle that the last person employed in the department should be the first to be retrenched."

Unfortunately, neither your question nor the circumstances are clear. Also, you have not stated your position and locus standi for the matter.

Proper Termination Procedures

If an employee has been removed (terminated) and is not on probation, it must follow the rules and be done in a proper manner. The employer needs to give a show cause and then hold a domestic enquiry before dismissing the employee (assuming the enquiry officer finds the person guilty of misconduct warranting dismissal).

Legal Recourse and Evidence

If this is not followed, you have various forums, before the labor officer and finally in the courts. Both are expensive and long-drawn processes. In each, you can provide evidence. No evidence is a secret, and once given, it becomes a part of the record. Whether the courts will accept the evidence depends on various circumstances, which, as Raghunath said, your lawyer will be able to tell you better.

Decision to Proceed

Whether to proceed or not is a decision you need to make. It depends on various factors, including whether you have the money and financial backing to fight. Remember that if you are involved in a legal case, prospective employers are unlikely to consider you for a job. So whether you want to fight or you want to simply move to a better job is your choice.

Unfortunately, neither your question nor the circumstances are clear. Also, you have not stated your position and locus standi for the matter. Whether to proceed or not is a decision you need to make. It depends on various factors, including whether you have the financial backing to fight. Remember that if you are involved in a legal case, prospective employers are unlikely to consider you for a job. So, whether you want to fight or simply move to a better job, it is your choice.

The above piece of advice is not employee-friendly but corporate-biased in nature.

Legal Evidence and Compensation

When a supervisor and the working environment speak and shout on the floor, when there is usage of profane words in the working environment by stakeholders, when there is a pen camera, audio recording, or video recording of the supervisor and colleagues' statements about the unprofessional work environment, will it be sufficient to prove in court to the judge under sealed cover (without exposing to the external world before judgment)? When the termination of services of an employee is abrupt, unfair, and illegal after requesting a professional work environment and communicating to HR about verbal abuse and an unprofessional work environment, what is the compensation for mental agony, loss of reputation, and employment loss apart from back wages with a prayer for reinstatement to the employee?

Employment Duration for Justice

Does the employee have to cross 240 days of employment to get justice?

Unfortunately, neither your question nor the circumstances are clear. Also, you have not stated your position and locus standi for the matter. Hope the above information is unclear to you, which we cannot be able to help out once what sort of clarity is needed from the union end to speak for employee favor.

Statement of Claim

The present statement of claim was filed by the workman, submitting that he has been under the employment of the respondent/management since 22.11.2013 as a 'Mechanic' with a monthly pay of Rs. 7,000/-. Upon requesting facilities such as an appointment letter, salary slip, attendance pass, annual holidays, national holidays, bonus, EPF, and others, the employer threatened the workman with false accusations. A demand letter dated 26.02.2016 was sent to the management. The management had unlawfully terminated the workman's service on 01.01.2016 and also failed to pay the salary from 01.11.2015 to 31.12.2015, as detailed in paragraph no. 8 of the claim. Consequently, the workman has prayed for full back wages with bonus, gratuity, legal expenses, compensation for mental agony and physical harassment, and other benefits.

Rights of Workmen

The rights of the workmen, who had been "cast out in the cold," as it were, consequent to the closure of the undertaking in which they were employed and working, have to be circumscribed by Section 25 FFF of the ID Act, and the various subsections and clauses thereof.

Dear Voipitunion,

Unfortunately, I still do not know what answer you are looking for. This is an HR forum where people discuss problems and look for answers to solve them. I am not sure how good this is as a philosophical forum. But if you are asking hypothetical and philosophical/ethics-related questions, please clarify when you post it.

My answer is not employee-friendly by telling the employee not to pursue legal methods if he can't afford it? Well, I think it is extremely employee-friendly. Instead, if you are telling employees to fight in court without telling them it will cost xx lakhs to pay lawyers, and other employers will shun them, unless you are providing the money and support, I think your approach is extremely employee unfriendly. You are setting up the employee for financial ruin.

If you are the union and asking what help it can provide a worker who has been taken undue advantage of or abused, then you should have clarified it in the first post so people would give the relevant answer to you.

In any case, workers have certain rights as soon as they are permanent (as against being on probation, or temporary or FTE), and this is not dependent on being in employment for 240 days. There are many other rights that are there even for someone who is not permanent. I think protection against abusive behavior is one of them. You can take it up from the union side with the grievance committee or works committee or even take it up to the Labor Commissioner and Factory Inspector. It depends on the structure of the workplace.

Dear Saswata Banerjee,

Unfortunately, I still do not know what answer you are looking for. This is an HR forum where people discuss problems and look for answers to solve them. I am not sure how good this is as a philosophical forum. But if you are asking hypothetical and philosophical or ethics-related questions, please clarify when you post it.

As an HR professional, it is really puzzling to see a few statements like "Unfortunately, neither your question nor the circumstances are clear. Also, you have not stated your position and locus standi for the matter." But went on to answer the query with the assumption as a philosophical forum with prejudice of Employee is wrong.

Hope as an HR, you might be aware of mental harassment queries from employees more than a union.

Example of Mental Harassment

Just an example to quote for mental harassment - Sample one from the employee's end:

1) Shouting in several (4-5) instances in a high-pitched voice by a supervisor is recorded in audio and video. Will that be okay if provided as court evidence?

2) Using stressful words in an email like "Let's stop this nonsense of sending the report at the last minute. I'm frustrated" by a supervisor. Will that be okay if provided as court evidence?

3) Fighting in calls between 2 supervisor heads in recorded calls. Remarks over the race, caste, sex, religion, disability, etc. Comments over the age of the employee. Defaming an employee causing wrongful damage to the reputation of the employee at the workplace. Negative remarks over different political beliefs. Comments over sexual orientation. Not recognizing but degrading someone over work efforts. Belittling an employee for the marital status. Sexual remarks. Non-payment of bonus wages. Stalking. Being targeted for no reason. Bullying/unexplained yelling for mistakes without giving any proper guidance. A hostile workplace. Insulting a senior employee in front of other co-workers or juniors. Secluding an employee while grouping the rest. Not following terms in the appointment agreement, whether it's about the pay or work hours or the position offered. Inclusion of unreasonable clauses in the employment agreement. Although instances of mental harassment at the workplace by a boss or co-worker do not end here, these are the usual behaviors that force an employee to succumb to depression due to a toxic workplace.

https://www.vidhikarya.com/legal-blo...place-in-india

Employee-Friendly Advice

My answer is not employee-friendly by telling the employee not to pursue legal methods if he can't afford it? Well, I think it is extremely employee-friendly. Instead, if you are telling employees to fight in court without informing them that it will cost XX lakhs to pay lawyers, and other employers will shun them, unless you are providing the money and support, I think your approach is extremely employee-unfriendly. You are setting up the employee for financial ruin.

Dear Saswata Banerjee, the above is not advice but a threatening kind of message against the employee community.

Please don't fight. Go to the streets and search for a new job is the advice from HR; it doesn't need law prospects to be studied in MBA.

Please change your tag to Human Resources to Company Resources is my humble submission.

@Saswatabanerjee, if your comments are very employee-friendly, so is the union response towards your corporate-biased answer.

1) My answer is not employee-friendly by telling the employee not to pursue legal methods if he can't afford it? Well, I think it is extremely employee-friendly. Instead, if you are telling employees to fight in court without telling them it will cost xx lakhs to pay lawyers, and other employers will shun them unless you are providing the money and support, I think your approach is extremely employee-unfriendly. You are setting up the employee for financial ruin.

Still, 5+ crore litigations are ongoing, with people fighting in courts knowing that justice will take decades, not years. The choice is forced upon them by the injustice inflicted on them, similar to the employee who is terminated or made to resign forcibly.

VOIP Union Condemns Unhealthy Work Culture

VOIP union condemns unhealthy work culture in the IT environment and requests government intervention to stop Chennai from becoming the IT suicide capital.

Is IT Organization Forcing Employees?

Is the IT organization forcing employees to study new technology within a short period and pressuring them for deliverables? Is putting goals of changing technology in an unrealistically short period a form of mental harassment adopted by the organization? The HR community has to be more responsible to save India from more suicides by making them adjust to forced resignation threats.

This is an HR forum. People discuss problems and look for answers to solve them. I am not sure how good this is as a philosophical forum. But if you are asking hypothetical and philosophical/ethics-related questions, please clarify when you post them.

Hope the feeling of superiority followed by the ostrich syndrome is not going to work out while discussing the point of mental agony and compensation-related queries. We have listed down the scenarios in detail. It's okay that a lack of awareness/lack of interest towards employee welfare exists from the HR end when solutions towards workers' welfare are discussed as a way forward.

Condemnation of Narayana Murthy's Statement

Why does the Indian workers' community have to condemn Narayana Murthy's 72-hour work per week statement? NRM has been condemned by unions and employees but not the Indian HR community for his anti-worker statement.

End of the Permanent Job Era

At the end of this permanent job era, employees are left with the fate of facing layoffs with two existing choices. 1) Resign as per corporate strategy and face the pain of being thrown to the streets until a new job is obtained, or 2) Resist layoffs and face it as per the laws of the land to get your job back as per the judicial process with the help of the union. #REJECTLABOURCODE2020 and NEEM schemes forced on the Indian Employees community. The choice is yours.