I have been an employee for 13 months in a company and resigned as per per the company rules after duly serving my notice period. At the time of my joining company issued me an offer letter with my annual CTC comprising as being shown in two parts as monthly take home salary after all deductions and annual incentive as payable during the year. I accepted the offer and joined the company and later on the company issues me the appointment letter with the same CTC structure as earlier shown in offer letter but with an additional one line mentioning annual incentive payable during the year end based on due performance appraisal being conducted. My question here is I did accept the job based on the offer letter issued with a condition that I accept the offer within three days and I accepted as this offer had protected my annual CTC as I was drawing in my earlier organisation but after I had accepted the offer and joined the company the company changes the terms of release of my annual incentive which is 10% of my total CTC. I have raised this issue with HR during my service period and every time they mentioned this are released end of the year and I shall get it too. Now after my resignation the company is informing me that the annual incentive component will not be paid as this is conditional and based on my performance appraisal which did not happen hence I will be not eligible to receive the annual incentive component. The second question is when an employee serves for 13 months in a company and his annual incentive is due after completion of twelve calendar months is it not the responsibility of the company to ensure the annual incentive or dues are cleared? I had served my due notice period and in my resignation letter I had clearly mentioned about clearing my variable components(INCENTIVE PART) which the HR should have taken care of during my notice period but they did not even communicate anything with regard to the same. I want to understand what are my legal options here, does this case has legal standing to sue and penalize the company for wrongful doing, misrepresentation, cheating and manipulation? The annual incentive component is important to me and I feel cheated hence I would like to fight this case legally now and not let the company forfeit my money which is rightfully mine and also not take employees for granted in future. Please do advise me on how should I take this case forward. I have the records in terms of my offer letter, appointment letter, my resignation and other communication that are sufficient to serve as evidence to substantiate my case. Looking forward to hear your expert advise on the subject matter. Thanking you and regards
