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Rajesh   30 May 2020

Salary cut in private organization - do i have a case?

Respected Lawyers,

My employer (a private organization) has cut my salary by 50% since the start of lockdown. Last 2 months they have cut my salary by 50% despite I am working from home full time and there’s no compromise in quality of my output. Rather now that there’s no time wastage in commute to office I can work extra every day. Moreover, now since last 2 months I am using my own resources at no cost to the organization. Be it my laptop, residential electricity, home internet connection and so on. Electricity bill should now go up by at least 700 - 800Rs and last two months I had to pay Rs 500 extra to top up my Internet with additional data to work from home!

When asked, the employer said, the management has decided to divert funds towards covid19 relief so salary is cut.

I appreciate that the management has genuine intentions but that does not justify two things

  1. Touching employee salary when there’s still output from the employee
  2. Touching employee salary without their consent before diverting it to CSR or whatever you call.
  3. If management wants CSR, they should first do it from their own profit reserves

The sad part is there’s no clarity when it will return to normalcy. They say this could be for a long time and even if salary is restored in future, whatever will get cut may never be settled or paid later.

Keeping in mind this is a private organization, do I have a valid case if I decide to take it to the court? I know the moment they receive a legal notice from me, they will kick me out of the organization. I will accept tough times ahead. However despite, I want to stand up for my rights and values. Even if they throw me out, I want to recover what they have cut till date.

The reason I want to do it, is that the private organizations must understand that their employees have courage and conviction to  knock the doors of the court if they do something like this.

I know in a dispute between a private organization and an individual the organization always wins!

Best regards.



Learning

 3 Replies

Ritesh Maity (Labour Law Advocate)     31 May 2020

It is absolutely correct that once your company smells that you have approached a lawyer, they will try to make your life hell.

It is however, not correct that in a dispute between company and employee, the company always win. Though the company is always financially powerful, capabale of hiring the best legal brains and also take the matter till the Apex Court, but it is also a fact that these lower courts are often titled (unfortunately though) towards the employees.

Coming to your situation, it prima facie looks like you have a good case. Now the decision is yours as to whether you want to fight or not. 

1 Like

Rajesh   08 June 2020

Thank you Sir for your reply. The reason I say so is because it's a private organization. They can always give me a revised salary letter saying that going forward this is your new salary. Either accept or leave.

That's why I wanted to know if there's anything in the labour laws that protect employees. In such situations.

There's a clear message going from PM Narendra Modi ji that employers should not cut employee salaries.

It would have been ok if I was sitting at home doing nothing in lockdown, but I was working full time from home.

Is there any copy of labor laws available online that I can go thru?

Best regards.

Ritesh Maity (Labour Law Advocate)     08 June 2020

Under labour laws, there are plenty of protections for the employees. So they cannot simply ask you to leave. The so called PM's message or Order of MHA asking employers not to deduct salary has been challenged and pending before Supreme Court. Labour laws consists of too many Acts. At least 15-20 different Acts are commomly used or may be more than that. Try to google
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