What is the next course of action if the labour office is not co-operative with your grievances?
I had approached the Delhi Pushpa Bhawan DLC office on the 20th of January 2023 with a grievance related to non-payment of gratuity by a former employer. The form N was duly filled and printed out. I had copies of my appointment letter and relieving letter as well as printouts of other email correspondences I felt would prove to be evidences to support my case.
The moment I entered, some apparent peon walking on the corridor asked what I was there for and asked me for the papers. I gave him the completed form "N". He asked "why haven't you put it in a file folder?"
The absurdity of reasons for rebuffing the applicant doesn't end here. I am sure the forum participants would be shocked at how backward the national capital of a country globally now getting recognised for its "Digital India" initiative functions when it comes to its government departments. This man, the peon who is supposed to be the jack of all trades has no clue of the laws, procedures or anything. He referred me to the administrative office where an individual asked why I didn't bring the forms on company letterheads. I re-iterated that I have a complaint against my ex-employer over non-payment of gratuity. He then asked me to go into the DLC's office.
I entered, was asked to sit and he told the peon to bring an old file with a gratuity claim; the peon brought some random unrelated file and then was sent back to bring the gratuity file. I was barely given 3 seconds to look through it before he snatched it away and went away. I once again explained to the officer that I have the filled form and have carried along all the documents he needed.
His questions were: "Where is the district mentioned in this?"; apparently my application form "N" said only "To The Controlling Authority Under Payment Of Gratuity Act 1972". Can't I just write it with a pen and submit it there only?
He said bring all the documents in the way they showed us as I was "educated" on Tuesday (24 Jan 2023) and went on to say for these matters it can be solved in the labour office itself instead of spending a fortune on hiring a lawyer.
I tried to once again explain that the form was no different from the sample file they showed and tried to plead with him to accept the application at that time itself. That annoyed the officer and he asked me to not "waste his time" and asked "What is this, all loose set of papers? Aren't you an educated person? If you can't understand, hire a lawyer and he will submit the papers in the correct fashion." He didn't even look at the documents I was carrying. Those who are from this region know that travelling from Greater Noida to Pushpa Bhawan is like going on an outstation tour. Making multiple rounds like this back and forth will alone cause a huge dent in your wallet.
Filing the papers in the correct sequence with the evidence etc should be the office staff's problem because I don't know in what order or format they file it in. The state government appoints a controlling authority and provides them with the necessary stationery so that even an illiterate person can approach empty handed and fill up the application form for direction right then and there. This office clearly isn't functioning as a social welfare organisation.
The peon then took me out and said he will send me photos of the other application and demanded money. I was with a friend who noted his number down and texted a "hi" on WhatsApp. He hastily gave him 500 Rs because he was in a hurry and was trying to drag me out to leave as he was getting late for his work. He convinced me that he will later on call that guy up and discuss everything. The guy sent pictures of the other application which was simply the same form "N", divided into three pages instead of the original 2.
I am pretty sure that this is not even the tip of the iceberg and given the repetitive mention of hiring lawyers, the officer is trying to hint at how I can possibly get the work at a considerably discount in comparison to lakhs that I may need to shell out on fighting a case by hiring a lawyer.
As of right now I am sure they will find more flimsy glitches or pointless mistakes on my application to further tire me out before eventually arriving at what they intend to gain from this transaction before they can do their job. I wish to proceed further with escalating this matter if nothing is achieved on the 24th, which I am sure is what is going to happen. I do not have the scope of paying any further bribes because in the interim period after my resignation, I have been unemployed and am almost surviving on help from friends and family.
PS: To briefly state what my issue is:
My organisation, one with considerable reach in Lutyen's Delhi, has been engaging in blatant misclassification of full time employees as contract workers to show inflated profits in their quarterly reports; violating SEBI rules; befooling investors. This is not just theft of employee social security funds but also violative of income tax laws as there are different tax rules for salaries paid to employees as against "independent contractors". Courts have time and again lambasted organisations giving various nomenclatures to employees working full time to bypass the labour laws. I have worked there for nearly 10 years and the company says that I am not eligible for gratuity. I didn't intend to pick up any quarrels with the organisation as I felt no different ever from other employees as long as I worked there. I was eligible for annual leaves, increments, company resources (gym, library) and other benefits. However from among the few staff I interact with I don't know who among them is hired with the "independent contractor" agreement nor do I know who among those who resigned had completed 5 years under that nomenclature to have figured out that this kind of agreement would eventually deprive me of gratuity; one of the major reasons for not taking up a lucrative job at the end of four years as I calculated that my accumulated gratuity exceeded the increased pay being offered.
From India
1I had approached the Delhi Pushpa Bhawan DLC office on the 20th of January 2023 with a grievance related to non-payment of gratuity by a former employer. The form N was duly filled and printed out. I had copies of my appointment letter and relieving letter as well as printouts of other email correspondences I felt would prove to be evidences to support my case.
The moment I entered, some apparent peon walking on the corridor asked what I was there for and asked me for the papers. I gave him the completed form "N". He asked "why haven't you put it in a file folder?"
The absurdity of reasons for rebuffing the applicant doesn't end here. I am sure the forum participants would be shocked at how backward the national capital of a country globally now getting recognised for its "Digital India" initiative functions when it comes to its government departments. This man, the peon who is supposed to be the jack of all trades has no clue of the laws, procedures or anything. He referred me to the administrative office where an individual asked why I didn't bring the forms on company letterheads. I re-iterated that I have a complaint against my ex-employer over non-payment of gratuity. He then asked me to go into the DLC's office.
I entered, was asked to sit and he told the peon to bring an old file with a gratuity claim; the peon brought some random unrelated file and then was sent back to bring the gratuity file. I was barely given 3 seconds to look through it before he snatched it away and went away. I once again explained to the officer that I have the filled form and have carried along all the documents he needed.
His questions were: "Where is the district mentioned in this?"; apparently my application form "N" said only "To The Controlling Authority Under Payment Of Gratuity Act 1972". Can't I just write it with a pen and submit it there only?
He said bring all the documents in the way they showed us as I was "educated" on Tuesday (24 Jan 2023) and went on to say for these matters it can be solved in the labour office itself instead of spending a fortune on hiring a lawyer.
I tried to once again explain that the form was no different from the sample file they showed and tried to plead with him to accept the application at that time itself. That annoyed the officer and he asked me to not "waste his time" and asked "What is this, all loose set of papers? Aren't you an educated person? If you can't understand, hire a lawyer and he will submit the papers in the correct fashion." He didn't even look at the documents I was carrying. Those who are from this region know that travelling from Greater Noida to Pushpa Bhawan is like going on an outstation tour. Making multiple rounds like this back and forth will alone cause a huge dent in your wallet.
Filing the papers in the correct sequence with the evidence etc should be the office staff's problem because I don't know in what order or format they file it in. The state government appoints a controlling authority and provides them with the necessary stationery so that even an illiterate person can approach empty handed and fill up the application form for direction right then and there. This office clearly isn't functioning as a social welfare organisation.
The peon then took me out and said he will send me photos of the other application and demanded money. I was with a friend who noted his number down and texted a "hi" on WhatsApp. He hastily gave him 500 Rs because he was in a hurry and was trying to drag me out to leave as he was getting late for his work. He convinced me that he will later on call that guy up and discuss everything. The guy sent pictures of the other application which was simply the same form "N", divided into three pages instead of the original 2.
I am pretty sure that this is not even the tip of the iceberg and given the repetitive mention of hiring lawyers, the officer is trying to hint at how I can possibly get the work at a considerably discount in comparison to lakhs that I may need to shell out on fighting a case by hiring a lawyer.
As of right now I am sure they will find more flimsy glitches or pointless mistakes on my application to further tire me out before eventually arriving at what they intend to gain from this transaction before they can do their job. I wish to proceed further with escalating this matter if nothing is achieved on the 24th, which I am sure is what is going to happen. I do not have the scope of paying any further bribes because in the interim period after my resignation, I have been unemployed and am almost surviving on help from friends and family.
PS: To briefly state what my issue is:
My organisation, one with considerable reach in Lutyen's Delhi, has been engaging in blatant misclassification of full time employees as contract workers to show inflated profits in their quarterly reports; violating SEBI rules; befooling investors. This is not just theft of employee social security funds but also violative of income tax laws as there are different tax rules for salaries paid to employees as against "independent contractors". Courts have time and again lambasted organisations giving various nomenclatures to employees working full time to bypass the labour laws. I have worked there for nearly 10 years and the company says that I am not eligible for gratuity. I didn't intend to pick up any quarrels with the organisation as I felt no different ever from other employees as long as I worked there. I was eligible for annual leaves, increments, company resources (gym, library) and other benefits. However from among the few staff I interact with I don't know who among them is hired with the "independent contractor" agreement nor do I know who among those who resigned had completed 5 years under that nomenclature to have figured out that this kind of agreement would eventually deprive me of gratuity; one of the major reasons for not taking up a lucrative job at the end of four years as I calculated that my accumulated gratuity exceeded the increased pay being offered.
From India
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SBT Vs Asst. Labour Commissioner- Gratuity dismissed employee-LTS.PD F
Labour commissioner order.jpeg