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My stay in India has completely fallen apart. My employer in India decided to withhold wages from me for April. This is the final step in a quickly deteriorating relationship. He loaned us money to cover my girlfriend's back surgery outside of our business contract at the beginning of the month. There was never any official documentation of this transaction. He isn't in country currently so we didn't have the chance to hammer out a repayment schedule. For April, he simply decided to take it out of our wages without consulting us or giving us any forewarning. I walked out of the gym on Friday and told them we will not work until our wages our restored. He first called me and threatened to not buy our plane ticket home unless I worked out the month. In his mind, we owed him the money, and it was completely in his right to take it from us however he saw fit. No warning, no negotiations. After telling him we just wanted what was in our contract (wages for the months worked, flights home) and that we'd be willing to sign a contract to repay his loan to us, he told me he didn't want me in the gym period. We've consulted some people here in Hyderabad and their advice is to go directly to the US Embassy. Not only can we file an official complaint, but apparently if we do he loses his ability to sponsor business visas for any future coaches, as well as loses his ability to run an American franchise. Ramu, our boss, has told us he'll gladly go to court and resolve this. As I see it, he doesn't have a leg to stand on from a contract perspective, but this is India. Nothing works. Do we have any embassy workers here who can confirm or deny this? All Devin and I want is what's in our contract. Pay us for what we work and buy us a plane ticket home. We're not going to work for free, and it appears that's not even an option, given his emails to us. I want to go tomorrow to the Embassy if it's fruitful. My main goal is to pressure him into honoring our contract. thanks in advance guys. Here's the last picture I took of our Indian puppy who we rescued. We adopted her out to a family we found that had experience raising dogs like her. I'm on the toilet and she wants to play. 
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May 11, 2014 15:35
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| # ? May 5, 2024 10:34 |
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It's easy while working overseas to assume everything's broken and working against you, we've all been there, but if that's true you're hosed no matter what you do. If it's not that's by far your best shot. Go to the embassy. This sort of thing is exactly their job. Start looking for a plan b though. Eifert Posting fucked around with this message at 00:20 on May 12, 2014 |
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May 12, 2014 00:18
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All he did was take the money that you legally owed him in a not very nice way, but he didn't really take anything that wasn't his to begin with. In a country with a good worker protection system this would probably not be possible like that, but considering this is India your claim that what he did was illegal seems rather speculative. And by walking out of your job without respecting proper notice periods you may have broken your work contract, giving him a right to withhold the plane ticket too. But all of that is now past and can't be fixed anymore so there's not really too much benefit in still thinking about it, so what I'd do is contact the consulate (no need to go to the embassy for something like that), explain them your situation and ask them for advice. Don't continue with any more threats in the style of quote:Not only can we file an official complaint, but apparently if we do he loses his ability to sponsor business visas for any future coaches, as well as loses his ability to run an American franchise. For the future some general advice: - Especially in foreign countries, always assume that whenever somebody else disagrees with you about the law, that yours is the wrong position. Only insist on your opinion if direct harm will come to you, otherwise just accept their claims and do your research later, ideally with local help. - Don't escalate conflicts unless somebody displays malice and only after having thoroughly thought about how he is seeing his side of the problem. So many things you attribute to malice are really just misunderstandings and by escalating things you only give people retroactive confirmation that their misunderstanding was correct. For all we know the guy was just worried about having given you an unsecured loan and didn't want to end up getting cheated. - Never write emails angry, and only make angry phone calls when absolutely necessary. When you talk with somebody face to face you get immediate visual feedback about where a discussion is going, but especially on emails you can write a fuming 1000 word rant that you would've broken off after 10 seconds in a person-to-person talk once you see how his face is reacting. - And last but not least, do not keep your bank account at a level low enough that a simple emergency that costs less than a months wages forces you to take an emergency loan. Think of a certain level - let's say $3000 - that you think off as overdrafting and never go below that. If your account is ever below that, live like a college student until the situation is fixed.
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May 12, 2014 17:52
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I spoke with a lawyer and it turns out we're not even here legally because our boss got us the wrong type of visa to avoid paying taxes. This is a massive deal in India and hopefully we can lean on our boss with this information to at the very least get a return flight home. The Southeast Asia vacation is still possible...
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May 12, 2014 18:45
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I don't know any of the legal stuff, but loans from your employer are by default considered salary advances in India. Last month, the cleaning lady took Rs 500 advance to pay for her kids school tuition (at the start of the school year). It is assumed that next month's salary will have Rs 500 less. What exactly did you discuss with your employer regarding the repayment? From my position, as an Indian, it sounds like you defaulted on your loan and now are trying to blackmail your employer using legalese.
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May 13, 2014 10:43
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If its within your means to buy the plane tickets on your own or ask family for assistance back home on the plane ticket, I'd start working on an egress. I wouldn't have any faith in the Indian legal system to work this out, whether I was in the right or not. Your employer is in a much better position to bribe people than you are. Before I went to India and I was trying to arrange a host and living situation, the person who assisted me's (and that was born and raised in India until his middle-late adulthood) very first comment was "Indians will try to rape and rob you" and he wasn't far off. With the exception of a handful of people, most of the people I encountered were trying to work one over on me. Its part of the cutthroat business culture there. Good luck and get out before things get any messier. Yiggy fucked around with this message at 21:25 on May 13, 2014 |
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May 13, 2014 20:54
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Anarkii posted:I don't know any of the legal stuff, but loans from your employer are by default considered salary advances in India. Last month, the cleaning lady took Rs 500 advance to pay for her kids school tuition (at the start of the school year). It is assumed that next month's salary will have Rs 500 less. There was never any discussion about repayment of the loan when it was offered. It wasn't even possible, as our boss isn't in the country. It was literally cash in hand. When he simply took the money it screwed us both over big time. He's now refusing to buy our flights home unless we pay him back for the deposit he offered us on our flat. Unfortunately, our visa invitation clearly states that lodging, boarding, and flights are explicitly the responsibility of our employer, and our contract guarantees monthly payments and flights home; this isn't legalese. This is as black and white as you can get. I've contacted the Ministry of Home Affairs and have been sending them all our work documents since he's clearly committed Visa fraud. While I don't expect any quick resolution, they'll at least make his life hell after we're gone. The US Embassy couldn't help us. I mean it's gotten to the point where they're demanding we give them back the refrigerator they loaned us. Like, take the food out of that and give it back to us.
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May 14, 2014 03:23
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Dude, get the gently caress out of there. Call your mom and beg for a plane ticket, use a credit card, whatever. Get out. What's written on your contract only matters if the legal system agrees with your interpretation, and agrees to enforce it. You won't get an injunction to force your ex-boss (pretty sure you've been fired by now, or breeched the contract) to leave the fridge in your apartment, and that poo poo could be tied up in the legal system for a good long while. Your boss is from the area, speaks the language, knows the people - he has the upper hand on you when it comes to manipulating the system. Getting immigration to gently caress him over, if you're successful at that, might get you some form of personal satisfaction, whatever. Staying within that guy's reach, while you're (in his perception) loving him over, is dangerous for your well-being. He can play gently caress-gently caress games the like of which you cannot imagine. Pack your poo poo and get the gently caress out. You're expecting that the legal system over there works like it does in the West, where what's written on the page is actually what's enforced. It's not. Heck it's not even like that in the west. Just get home by any means necessary and move on with your life. Next time you get a cash advance, make sure you know the terms.
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May 14, 2014 04:44
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We're closing out our accounts right now and will just spend the night at a friends. We've secured buddy passes, and numerous friends have offered to fly us out worse comes to worse.
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May 14, 2014 05:29
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It also looks to me like you're looking at whatever India's form of debtor's prison is too. Make sure you don't go to Dubai or really any of the Gulf States for similar jobs, or you would literally end up in prison in a similar situation. E: Also the Indian guy who's your boss sounds kind of reasonable to me. I would also have considered it a "salary advance". Also you're the one in his country who doesn't understand how things go in India, and I guess he should've been more clear, but he probably thought it was all super obvious. I mean poo poo I wouldn't buy you both plane tickets (what's that, $2500?) either unless you worked out the month. It's also weird because to me it sounds like it started out not such a big deal, but between you yelling at him and him at you, it made everything SNAFU'd. Saladman fucked around with this message at 08:08 on May 14, 2014 |
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May 14, 2014 08:02
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