We have heard a lot about depositors woes connected to Adarsh Credit Co-operative Society Ltd, Ahmedabad. But the pain is not restricted to them alone.
Several employees also write to us detailing their tale of woes. Caught between no-salary and customers’ anger they are also a helpless lot. Additionally, the head office of Adarsh Credit Co-operative does not give them any information about the ground situation.
Though we cannot publish them all, here is one specimen written by one of the employees. We are withholding his name for the sake of his well-being but his tale of woes finds reverberations in many of the employees of the beleaguered credit co-op-Editor
His letter follows
Dear Sir
On behalf of the employees from Adarsh Credit Co-operative Society Ltd, Ahmedabad, I want to ask some questions. It’s a double whammy for us. On the one hand due to non-payment of salaries, employees are quitting and on the other customers are pressuring us in ways more than one like lodging police complaints and dragging us into legal cases. Misbehavior with us is the order of the day at the hands of irate customers.
Staff members are not in a position to revert to matters such as maturity of the deposits or payment matters as all investment and payments are controlled by the Central Office, Ahmadabad. They do not update us and have left us at the mercy of angry depositors.
Sir, I have a few queries related to our future
- Employees’ names mentioned in Legal cases by Member customers, is it right?
- Are Employees liable to pay the maturity payment from their pocket while customer member has taken FD or RD from Society?
- In employee’s offer letter of the job, notice period for quitting the same is mentioned for min 30 days, 60 days or 90 days. Now, resignation is not being accepted by Society HR. Is there some way or procedure whereby one may quit the job without serving any notice/information?
- Employees are working without salary and expenses for last 6 to 8 months. Is there a procedure to collect salary payment, which gets reflected as pending in our Society’s Saving Accounts?
I have resigned from my position but still society’s management has not updated me about acceptance and clearance of F&F settlement.
Please guide us as employees are facing lots of problems and there is no one here to understand the situation and help us out.
Regards
An employee of Adarsh Credit
Our expert Mr I C Naik replies
Fixed deposits are contracts between Depositor and Organization accepting the deposits. The organization and not its employee is a party to this contract. The employee has no contractual obligation to Depositors. Police cannot interfere in contractual relationship between employees and Credit Society. No Court will recognize any police action against employees. For not Credit Society paying salary there are three legal courses open.
- File a Police Complaint for breach of trust under contract of employment guaranteeing contracted amounts as salary payments
- Make a Complaint to Labour Commissioner under Payment of wages Act
- File a petition in Magistrates’ Court against the Chairman Secretary of the Credit Society for breach of trust through default in payment of agreed sum as salary.
- Employees should collectively take it up to demonstrate their might/strength