I received an offer letter from an organization. The offer letter had the details of the expected joining date, other basic employee benefits. Also it has some other extra terms which were that I will be paid a joining bonus and some negative terms that I have to the pay the co. 8% of my CTC in case i leave the organization before 1.5 yrs along with the joining bonus (as cost to the company for training and effort & time spent by team to get hold of the product knowledge). Also the offer letter said that a detailed employment letter will be issued to me later upon joining.
When i joined the organization, upon utter disbelief whatever was told to me during interviews was not correct. They hided many things during the interview discussions and never disclosed many key facts.
Even when I got my appointment it said that you will be governed by terms and conditions as per annexure 1 of the organization and there were many points which were never told to me (few are):
1) You will be on probation for six months.
2) The co can terminate your services without any reason during these six months.
I accepted the employment on these terms and conditions considering that the other negative conditions were not made part of it. It has been signed by me and the company’s HR on the company's letterhead.
Please note that there was nothing mentioned in my appointment letter or any enclosed annexure that I have to pay the co. 8% of my CTC in case i leave the organization before 1.5 yrs along with the joining bonus (as per my offer letter). There is no reference that any clause from the offer letter will form a part of my employment. Also there is no such organizational policy in this regard.
After around 23 days of working with them I have to leave the organization because of some personal reasons. I did not receive any salary till that time, no joining bonus, no Knowledge transfer sessions, nothing.
Now the organization has contacted me and asking me to pay them he agreed amount. I told them that these were not part of me employment letter but they are not listening. They are saying that this is as per offer letter.
As per my knowledge offer letter is a mere offer of employment and an individual can still decide not to join after signing the offer letter. However the appointment letter governs the terms and conditions of the employment and supersedes the offer letter.
I am really not sure. Please advise me that legally do I am still liable to pay them anything which they are asking for. Thanks!!!
