Hi,
I need some guidance from the experts on this forum.
Background –
I was hired by a UAE based Indian company. Interview, offer letter and all pre-joining formalities over phone were done by the UAE company. They had clearly stated that they have offices across the world and I will be working out of the UAE office. I joined their India office where I was working for a few months. I was issued a laptop from India office, I interacted and worked with my Indian counter parts. I was also paid in India for the initial period. Although, the payment was a remittance from UAE.
After the initial period, I was issued visa and I travelled to UAE. Here is when the problem started. The company did not pay my agreed salary or dues while I was there. They continued promising (on email) and I bought into those promises. Finally, I reached a point where I could not sustain in UAE without any salary so I had to resign and come back. Everything was agreed amicably and documented over emails.
After coming back the company continued to make false promises for few months and until one day completely backed out. This is when I decided to take them to court here in India.
My Issue –
I have filed a Winding up petition against my ex-employer. I received a response from their lawyers stating that the entity against which the petition has been filed and the entity who hired me were two completely different companies and therefore my claim cannot be entertained and should be dismissed.
Their defense is that I have filed a winding up petition against their India entity which is no way related to their UAE Company. The Indian entity never hired me or I never worked for or with them. They are not aware of my existence of my claims.
This is even though, both the entities have the same names, share the same CEO and investors, have the same website, email id domain and same management team. All publicly available information portrays them to be the same entity. For the employees sitting in Mumbai, UAE or any other place everything is the same.
My query is, how should I we respond to this claim that they are making? Both the entities may be registered as independent entities but does that give them completely independence when they are doing the same work under the same umbrella and sharing the common brandname, products and even employees. Can someone please guide me with some past reference case or pointers on this matter.
Thank you very much. Appreciate you reading my post.
