Dear All
This is pertaining to one of my friend, who is in a state of trouble now and needs advice on his previous employment
He joined as management trainee in a logistics company, campus recruited from a premier management school in Chennai. The company kept hidings the existence of an Employment Contract till the final round interview in Dec 2007 and reveals the terms and conditions of contract only when he joined the company in May 2010. (by the time he has no other choice but to join)
Terms & Conditions in brief: Duration of contract is 3 years from date of joining. He is liable to be transferred to any location of the company. He will be provided comprehensive 1 year training on all aspects of the industry. If he prefers to leave the company in the training period, the stipend earned for the entire training period to be returned. If he prefers to resign after the training period till the end of bond period, he is supposed to indemnify the employer with Rs 1 00 000/- . Notice Period: - 3 months. In the contract, the company states the reason justifying the Service Contract as, the heavy expenditure for the training.
Training: The appointment letter issued states the training period as 6 months, contradictory to 1 year in employment contract. And finally when the training starts the HR person informs verbally of a training program spanning 3 months. There was no training schedule or training summary /objectives distributed to the trainees. Finally when the training started, there was no training manual, trainers or even a training class room. The trainees where forced to stand in the workplace of other staffs and observe what others were doing. No formal training of any kind was given. As the entire process was informal, and due to the protest from the co-trainees, the training was shortened to 2 months. Only cost committed on the trainees was the overheads and accommodation which came to Rs 5000 for two months per head.
Employment: In July 2008 he was inducted toHR dept and posted in a remote rural location, which happens to be their corporate office. In Dec 2008, as the company was setting up divisional headquarters in Mumbai, they transferred him to Mumbai with just 10 days notice. In Dec 2009, they closed their division in Mumbai and transferred him to Chennai with 10 days notice. All these transfers were just intimated with a letter and notification on his job profile was absent on each occasions. There was no clarity on the Job involved and handing over was not done in any occasions. In May 2010, the company again asked him to move to Corporate Office Remote Location with a transfer. At the same time, his mother had an accident was hospitalized in a serious condition. He tried to convince his Head and Management to withdraw the transfer or postpone the date of joining. The management was adamant and never even tried to hear and stood adamant on the date of joining. There was no transfer letter issued and only a mail from HR asking to report on 17th May was received, for which he replied stating his inability. On 17th when he went to Chennai office, he was informed that, his entry is restricted and can only report to corporate office. He immediately rushed to Corporate Office next day and to his surprise the management was not ready to hear any of his problems and refused even to grant him leave to take care of his ailing mother (Sufficient Leave was available). They told they will relieve him, as they need the services only in corporate office, for which he was not willing. Nothing was given in writing regarding this even after repeated requests. He was ordered verbally to rush to Chennai Office and officially handover his work matter to the concerned, which was done perfectly. They told, he will be intimated reg the reliving formalities via phone and asked to leave the company premises.
After 1 week he received a mail from HR asking him to move to Jorhat, with a transfer. The said location doest have an office, neither any business interest related to his work profile. He responded by stating his inability to join Jorhat and consider Chennai as his location.
After 1 month, he received a Internal Memo, stating that he is absent without notice and is liable to Pay for the Bond Amount of Rs 100000 and serve notice period of 3 Months
Kindly advise what can he do now and he course of action
Regards
Sriram
