I am an American citizen who has been working in India for 2 years since 2017. Recently my employer renewed my contract in April 2019 for one year, then in May 2019, broke my contract without notice and now has refused to pay me my salary and the three-month notice period which is in my contract. They have also not paid me for May, which I worked. Currently, they owe me over 5 lakhs. In addition, when they broke my contract, it was 9 days before my visa was to expire so they tried to threaten and intimidate me into signing a resignation letter in exchange for a visa and a place to stay because they know I have nowhere else to go so they tried to exploit me. They still refused to pay me then as well. I refused to sign because it would release them of all financial liability towards me because that would have meant I was resigning without notice. They still have refused to pay what they owe me and are holding my salary and the information to my provident fund as well as me hostage in India. I have already filed a case with the police and they still have not paid. I have sent three emails to them requesting to pay. When I filed a police report, they said they would pay, but they have not. Instead, they had their lawyer try to get me to come to the police station to withdraw my complaint without having them pay me my salary. I went to the Labour department in Hyderabad but they told me they could not assist me cause I was not a labour worker- I am a teacher- I do not know where to go to file a complaint against my employer or what Government department I need go to but I would appreciate it if you could tell me what to do, especially to apply some pressure to get them to pay me as they cannot afford for this to be public.
