Employee Bond

[arif aghariya]

Hi ,

i am from Ahmadabad ,Gujarat,I want to take one suggestion that, before 6 month i have joined one pvt.ltd company. before joining the company they have signed me bond for 2 years on turn of agreement paper.and for security purpose they have taken my all original document and blank cheque. now after having six months of time in this company. i am not satisfied with company work. i am going away from my skills. so i am not inserted to work in this company any more.

so i want to ask that. is it legal to have this kind of bond?, and what can be happen when i terminate the bond and they go to the court? how can i get my all document back ? what can they do with blank cheque?


please help me for this situation,

hoping for your help

[Anayonkar Shivalkar]

Hi arif,

Welcome to CodeRanch!

Firstly, lot of things depend upon what is written in your agreement (which I believe you've already signed). e.g. does the agreement mention anything about what will happen if you decide to leave the company within bond period, how much amount the employer will recover etc. (this might be the reason for blank cheque).

Secondly, why do you want to leave? Please speak with your manager/boss etc. what you don't like and is anything can be done to change it (maybe another project etc.). Personally, I think of leaving the company as last option (plus, you've only completed 6 months here). Btw, is this your first job?

Thirdly, even after this, if your decision is final, please speak with HR department about what can be done. Please remember that you'll need to be on defensive side and negotiate with them. They are still having your original documents. You may refer to your discussion with manager and reason with HR about why you are leaving. I won't give you false hopes - the chances are that you'll have to pay some amount (for breaking the bond, and getting hold of your documents).

However, if you want to (and I hope you do) get hold of your documents, do not pull the guns. Don't even think about running away, or threatening them about court-of-law etc.

Once they understand that you are unhappy, I think they'll let you go. If you are lucky, it will happen for free (though I doubt it). Please talk to as many people as possible (manager, HR etc.) and as politely as possible.

Also, one last thing: do not ever join such company again. If a company takes hold of employees' original documents, then it is very much likely that the company thinks that the only way to reduce attrition is to threaten employees (by taking away their documents and blank cheques and so on) instead of improving work culture.

I hope this helps.

[Maneesh Godbole]

Anayonkar Shivalkar wrote:
Also, one last thing: do not ever join such company again. If a company takes hold of employees' original documents, then it is very much likely that the company thinks that the only way to reduce attrition is to threaten employees (by taking away their documents and blank cheques and so on) instead of improving work culture.

Big +1
Companies need to learn that good employer employee relationships are based on trust and mutual gratification

In my opinion, no bonds are legal unless the company has spent money in training you over some skillset after you joined (of course you should not take this at face value, but consult a lawyer).Forcing bonds, blank cheques, retaining originals and similar tactics are akin to bonded or even slave labor.

[Ulf Dittmer]

Also, one last thing: do not ever join such company again.

And the other lesson is: don't sign a contract that has provisions that you're not certain you can (or want to) abide by. If you sign that you'll stay for 2 years, and that it will cost you if you leave earlier, and now you want to leave earlier, it's only fair that it costs you. You would hold your employer to the details in the contract as well, after all. (This is of course true for all contracts, not just employment.)

[arif aghariya]

hi friends, first of all thanks for your valuable suggestion,

i have lots of opportunity in others company that working on my skill set and i am thinking that if i continue with my current company it will make bad impact on my career
i have signed bond that mention that , in the case if i termite the contract then i have to pay whole year of salary (around 1.5 lacks).
there is only way to left the company without any cost is once the company itself terminate me.
so is it the good way to start some misbehave in company, i mean to be absent and not to complete the work at given time. and so on and to wait for let them to terminate me.

[Anayonkar Shivalkar]

arif aghariya wrote:there is only way to left the company without any cost is once the company itself terminate me.
so is it the good way to start some misbehave in company, i mean to be absent and not to complete the work at given time. and so on and to wait for let them to terminate me.

I don't want to sound rude, but, are you serious? I would highly suggest to use some common sense here.

Once you get a 'termination letter', you are almost done. Please give a thought about how are you going to find another job with termination letter in your hand (and not experience letter). Also, there's no way you can complain about it once you are fired. These days, it takes only few hours to do a thorough background check, and it is almost impossible that you could hide this fact (that you were fired) from your new employer.

Do not ever think of this (and such) approach. I would still suggest to go through my previous reply and start a good communication with relevant people.

[Junilu Lacar]

arif aghariya wrote:only way to left the company without any cost is once the company itself terminate me.
so is it the good way to start some misbehave in company, i mean to be absent and not to complete the work at given time. and so on and to wait for let them to terminate me.

This would be totally unprofessional on your part and the wrong way to go about trying to improve your career.

[Steve Fahlbusch]

so i want to ask that. is it legal to have this kind of bond?, and what can be happen when i terminate the bond and they go to the court? how can i get my all document back ? what can they do with blank cheque?

Gee - it sure does not make sense to me to be asking legal questions on a technical site.

From the above it is obvious that you do not understand the contract that you signed. So stop discussing this here and find someone that understands the community / local laws and can advise you. Just so that you understand - walk away from here a get a legal advisor. Also share this post here with them so they can advise.

One last point, 18 months is not going to destroy your career so dont be too surprised if your legal advisor recommends that you just suck it up and work to the agreement that you agreed to.

I wish you the best of luck, but please get legal help.

-steve

[Sumit Bisht]

Arif, In my opinion, the best way to leave the company is to pay the bond amount/meet conditions.
Since you do not have much experience, I'd suggest that you stick with the current job and work to finish your bond first. Opportunities are everywhere and they always seem rosy. One way to improve your situation is to work on your problem/issues with the current job and try to eliminate them.
If the worst comes to worst and you feel compelled to leave the present company without paying, you can do so by absconding and getting your documents reissued rather than doing it unethically.

[Junilu Lacar]

Sumit Bisht wrote:leave the present company without paying, you can do so by absconding ... rather than doing it unethically.

I don't know; disappearing without notice and not fulfilling an obligation sure sounds like unethical behavior to me.

Perhaps the word absconding isn't the word you meant to use

[Jayesh A Lalwani]

IMO, not fulfilling a contract is unethical. Asking a fresh graduate, who is probably not old enough to understand his/her rights, and is desperate to find the first job, to sign a document that amounts to bonded labor is unethical too. The question here is not what is ethical/unethical. There are no heroes/villians here. You can't put it in black and white terms. What matters is really who is the bigger a-hole, who has the bigger stick, and who has the most to lose.

Certainly, the OP should try to play nice first, but if "absconding" is the only option, then he should be aware of the pitfalls.