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Gaurav Srivastava (NA)     02 April 2012

*very urgent* regarding service agreement

Hi.. I have signed a service agreement on the day of joining the company(company is in Gujrat & I am from MP) on 2nd Jan, before joining I have clearly communicated to the company that I belong to a nuclear family & my mother is a cardiac patient & has also gone through 'angioplasty' & my father is a high BP patient so I will have to visit them in the need of any urgeny as there is no one to take care of them & my relatives also lives in other states, and I was verbally communicated by the company's HR person that I will be getting 18-20 days leaves in a year & moreover whenever situation demands I can go & take care of my parents in the situation of any need/urgency. Before joining company's HR manager intimated me that I will have to sign a service agreement of 1 year in which no money is involved & its just a formality, on cross verfiying the HR manager told me that you can even leave the company if there is any critical situation that demands your presense with your parents, for which I agreed. This whole conversation was telephonic. But on the day of joining, the service agreement was of 11 pages with numerous conflicting & dual meaning clauses, few of which also says that in the event of leaving the company before 1 year I will have to pay 6 month's salary(this clause was long & I dont remember the whole I think there was also mention of training but I dont remember precisely), other clause says that after leaving the company I cannot join any other company from the same domain for the period of 2 years & the most disturbing to me personally was that I will get only 5 days leave in a year, after going through these points & some other ambiguous clauses I refused to sign the agreement so the HR manager convinced me that this is a generalised agreement for all employees & that they cant make a seperate agreement for me. On clarifying the agreement's money clause HR manager told me that you don't worry its present for those employees who leave us & join our competitor before completing agreement tenure but you dont worry its not for you. On agreement's 5 day leave policy he told me that the company policy has changed within last 2 days but I should not worry as they will give me leave whenever I wanted & I can take HR manager's words for this. So at last I asked for 2 days time to think over this(& some other agreement clauses) but the HR person told me that I have to sign it right away & I cant even enter my office without signing it but HR manager convinced me to sign it by giving wrong statements & fake promises against the agreement clauses & its monetary value. But on my first day after joining the company no introduction/induction session has been conducted. The whole day no employee talked to me & not even my immediate senior. The same scenario continued for 3 days days, usually no one talked to me, no introduction has been done, my senior never talked to me & in these 4 days not even a bit of work was assigned to me & I was made sit idle for 9 hours in front of a computer monitor. Moreover company's Ops-head talked very rudely & used unethical words(threatening) for the employees one day while giving a speech. On complaining about this uncomfortable & unethical work culture to the HR manager he told me that I will be assigned work soon & as far as other issues are concerned I am not there to change the company policies. On 6th Jan I have to leave to my home as my mother got serious & I intimated the same to the HR manager verbally because my company's email ID was not created till then. After my mother's checkup & all when she got stable, unfortunately I met a minor accident for which I even provided the company with a doctor's medical certificate for bed rest but by then the company asked me to either join the company anyhow or they can hire my replacement so I agreed that they can hire my replacement (I have sms proves of all these conversations with the company's HR person) & also after undertaking company's unethical culture & my odds I decided not to join the company. On 1st Feb I texted to the HR person that I am resigning from my job due to misinformation provided intially regarding leave policy & unethical work culture & will male the same formally through mail when me health recovers & on 15th Feb I formally mailed the same to the company.

Now the company has filed a court case against me & want me to pay 2.5 lacs rupees as compenation against breaking the service agreement. They have sent me a notice from a labour law lawyer. Please note that I have worked in this company for only 4 days. I have not given a minute of trainig neither a single penny againt anything nor I have asked for 4 days salary. I am not having the copy of the service agreement nor I am working in any company as my parents need my care.

Please suggest me what I am supposed to do?



Learning

 5 Replies

Kumar Doab (FIN)     02 April 2012

Approach an experienced and competent service lawyer and give inputs in person and arrange to supply a befitting reply to the legal notice, within the time period mentioned in the legal notice.

Initially you took the right approach by questioning the service agreement, leave etc but later you faulted and fell for traps.

Let your lawyer examine the appointment letter, service agreement, certified standing orders, S&E Act, and details given by you. If you do not have the copy of service agreement your lawyer shall call for it.

If you do not have the copy of service agreement, how do you gather that you have signed one and there have been clauses like……….?

Refrain from disclosing your present employment.

Bombay shop and Establishment Act is applicable in Gujarat.

35. Leave.-7[(1)(a) Subject to the provisions of clause (b), every employee who has been employed for not less than three months in any year, shall for every 60 days on which he has worked during the year be allowed leave, consecutive or otherwise, for a period of not more than five days:

20[38-B. Application of Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Act to establishments.-The provisions of the Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Act, 1946, in its application to the State of Maharashtra 6 [(hereinafter in this section referred to as "the said Act"), and the rules and standing orders (including model standing orders) made there under from time to time, shall, mutatis mutandis, apply to 25[all establishments wherein fifty or more employees are employed and]25 to which this Act applies, as if they were industrial establishment within the meaning of the said Act.


Attached File : 129855605 bombay%20shops%20%26%20establishments%20act%201948.doc downloaded: 148 times

Gaurav Srivastava (NA)     02 April 2012

Originally posted by :Kumar Doab
"
If you do not have the copy of service agreement, how do you gather that you have signed one and there have been clauses like……….?

Refrain from disclosing your present employment.
 
"

Thanks for replying. I do not have the copy of the service agreement as I only read it once before signing it & thereafter given to the HR person. Moreover I only have the offer letter as they  told me that I would be getting the appointment letter within 7 days of joining but I left the company in 4 days only. I want to know that since I left the company within 4 days which is within the period of probation period(i.e. 1 month) & moreover neither the company has given me any training nor it spent a single penny in my skill enchancement still they have the legal right to charge me for a penality of 2.5 lacs just for leaving company due to its unethical culture & my family's genuine problem?

Kumar Doab (FIN)     03 April 2012

Did you sign any joining report, induction report, and mark attendance?

You have signed service agreement and apparently, it becomes effective from the day you have joined duties.

The notice period/pay applicable, in probation as expressed in offer/appointment letter/standing orders shall be computed by the company in their demand of payment from you.

Your lawyer shall look into the record and inputs given by you and shall structure a befitting reply to the company. It is felt that legal notice should be replied.

Gaurav Srivastava (NA)     03 April 2012

Originally posted by :Kumar Doab
"
Did you sign any joining report, induction report, and mark attendance?

You have signed service agreement and apparently, it becomes effective from the day you have joined duties.

The notice period/pay applicable, in probation as expressed in offer/appointment letter/standing orders shall be computed by the company in their demand of payment from you.

Your lawyer shall look into the record and inputs given by you and shall structure a befitting reply to the company. It is felt that legal notice should be replied.
"

Yes I had signed the joining report & service agreement & I do maked the attendace in the respective attendace register for 4 days only.

Kumar Doab (FIN)     03 April 2012

Your lawyer shall look into the record and inputs given by you and shall structure a befitting reply to the company. It is felt that legal notice should be replied.


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