I was offered a job by an organization in January under certain conditions:
1. A contractual agreement of 2 years against a monetary compensation to be paid by the employee to the employer for specialized training given to the employee, in case the contract is breached.
2. The contract also states that an employee will be on probation for a period of 6 months and continue to remain on probation at the sole discretion of management unless confirmed in writing by management.
3. After confirmation, if the employee decides to breach the contract before the contractual period, then they will have to serve a 3-month notice.
The appointment letter with the stated conditions was given to me 5 months after employment. Since I did not have any other job in hand, I had to sign the paper out of necessity. Also, I had to submit my original documents as part of the commitment.
At the end of last month, I submitted my resignation based on my medical condition, stating that while traveling to the office, I had met with an accident in which I injured myself. Since then, due to daily bike travel, my injury has worsened to the point that my daily commute on my bike to the workplace is causing a lot of inconvenience to me. Out of concern for my personal health, I am regretfully resigning from my role in the organization.
Promises Made by the Organization
The promises given by the organization verbally were that:
- I would be given specialized training for a period of six months to ensure my performance and learning since I was new to this line of work.
- My salary would be reviewed after 6 months.
In reality, I was put on a project 2 weeks later, despite informing them that I didn’t have the necessary technical competency to be made responsible for a project. I never received proper support from my manager, and the same was conveyed to management earlier in a separate discussion. Secondly, there is no formal training program in the company, so I did not receive any kind of training. Also, the management is now saying that they never committed to any salary review after 6 months, against which I asked them to present my interview file on which it was clearly written, which they seem to have misplaced.
Current Situation
Now, as per my recent discussion with management, I was informed I would have to serve notice until the end of this month (becoming a 5-week notice against a usual 1-month notice) to ensure proper handover of responsibilities. I documented all the call-outs of the meeting in an email and forwarded it to all involved. Against this, the management now states that this information is not true and that I will have to serve as per all of my contractual conditions, and the end of this month is only subject to those conditions. This information was not conveyed to me during the meeting. Also, the management has never discussed any matter of monetary compensation in any of our discussions to date.
I also have another opportunity in hand with home pickup and drop facility, which is basically the best solution for me considering my condition, for which I have also committed a date based on the information shared above.
Seeking Advice
It is clear to me that I am being harassed and very stressed out, as I feel this problem might cause me to lose the new opportunity as well. I need some advice on what course of action I should pursue to ensure this does not pull me down professionally and to know if I am in the safe zone here in this scenario. Can I do something that can bring closure to this mental torture, or should I just keep quiet and bear it until the end of this month? I also came to know that management has informed the accounts department to put my last month’s salary on hold, and I am also not sure if management will give me any relieving and experience letter or even return my original documents to me.
Regards
From India, Mumbai
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1. A contractual agreement of 2 years against a monetary compensation to be paid by the employee to the employer for specialized training given to the employee, in case the contract is breached.
2. The contract also states that an employee will be on probation for a period of 6 months and continue to remain on probation at the sole discretion of management unless confirmed in writing by management.
3. After confirmation, if the employee decides to breach the contract before the contractual period, then they will have to serve a 3-month notice.
The appointment letter with the stated conditions was given to me 5 months after employment. Since I did not have any other job in hand, I had to sign the paper out of necessity. Also, I had to submit my original documents as part of the commitment.
At the end of last month, I submitted my resignation based on my medical condition, stating that while traveling to the office, I had met with an accident in which I injured myself. Since then, due to daily bike travel, my injury has worsened to the point that my daily commute on my bike to the workplace is causing a lot of inconvenience to me. Out of concern for my personal health, I am regretfully resigning from my role in the organization.
Promises Made by the Organization
The promises given by the organization verbally were that:
- I would be given specialized training for a period of six months to ensure my performance and learning since I was new to this line of work.
- My salary would be reviewed after 6 months.
In reality, I was put on a project 2 weeks later, despite informing them that I didn’t have the necessary technical competency to be made responsible for a project. I never received proper support from my manager, and the same was conveyed to management earlier in a separate discussion. Secondly, there is no formal training program in the company, so I did not receive any kind of training. Also, the management is now saying that they never committed to any salary review after 6 months, against which I asked them to present my interview file on which it was clearly written, which they seem to have misplaced.
Current Situation
Now, as per my recent discussion with management, I was informed I would have to serve notice until the end of this month (becoming a 5-week notice against a usual 1-month notice) to ensure proper handover of responsibilities. I documented all the call-outs of the meeting in an email and forwarded it to all involved. Against this, the management now states that this information is not true and that I will have to serve as per all of my contractual conditions, and the end of this month is only subject to those conditions. This information was not conveyed to me during the meeting. Also, the management has never discussed any matter of monetary compensation in any of our discussions to date.
I also have another opportunity in hand with home pickup and drop facility, which is basically the best solution for me considering my condition, for which I have also committed a date based on the information shared above.
Seeking Advice
It is clear to me that I am being harassed and very stressed out, as I feel this problem might cause me to lose the new opportunity as well. I need some advice on what course of action I should pursue to ensure this does not pull me down professionally and to know if I am in the safe zone here in this scenario. Can I do something that can bring closure to this mental torture, or should I just keep quiet and bear it until the end of this month? I also came to know that management has informed the accounts department to put my last month’s salary on hold, and I am also not sure if management will give me any relieving and experience letter or even return my original documents to me.
Regards
From India, Mumbai
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I don’t think that a fixed-term (2 years) contract employee should be placed on probation initially. Anyway, right now, I hope you are on a confirmed status. If so, you are bound by the notice period clause of 3 months.
I don’t even think of an establishment in this time which will hold the certificates of employees. This is illegal as per certain labor laws in some states, like Kerala.
An employee who has no reportees under him will only come under the purview of labor laws. If yes, certainly, you can approach the labor department, and they will be able to help you get your certificates back and even get a waiver from the notice period. In a conciliation, the legality of your fixed-term contractual employment itself could be questioned considering the nature of work, etc. On the other hand, if you have reportees under you, you cannot get the protection of labor laws.
An establishment that can offer an appointment order five months after joining an employee and which can take into custody the certificates of the employees can definitely spoil the career of employees as well. Therefore, whatever legal rights you may find, you should be very careful. In a battle, you will get your certificates back, you can also get or even ignore the 8 or 9 months of service with the company, and you may also get or forget this month’s salary, but you may not get a decent relieving from the company, and the latter is the most important one as far as career is concerned. At the same time, your future organization can help you a lot. If they are convinced about your situation, they can waive your relieving letter from the present organization and let you join them.
Regards,
Madhu.T.K
From India, Kannur
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4526I don’t even think of an establishment in this time which will hold the certificates of employees. This is illegal as per certain labor laws in some states, like Kerala.
An employee who has no reportees under him will only come under the purview of labor laws. If yes, certainly, you can approach the labor department, and they will be able to help you get your certificates back and even get a waiver from the notice period. In a conciliation, the legality of your fixed-term contractual employment itself could be questioned considering the nature of work, etc. On the other hand, if you have reportees under you, you cannot get the protection of labor laws.
An establishment that can offer an appointment order five months after joining an employee and which can take into custody the certificates of the employees can definitely spoil the career of employees as well. Therefore, whatever legal rights you may find, you should be very careful. In a battle, you will get your certificates back, you can also get or even ignore the 8 or 9 months of service with the company, and you may also get or forget this month’s salary, but you may not get a decent relieving from the company, and the latter is the most important one as far as career is concerned. At the same time, your future organization can help you a lot. If they are convinced about your situation, they can waive your relieving letter from the present organization and let you join them.
Regards,
Madhu.T.K
From India, Kannur
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Notice of Employee Change.doc