Training agreement and bond signed with a company. Is this legal?
Posting on behalf of my sister
My sister is working in the hospitality industry. She graduated from college last year and got employed via College placements.
They mentioned that she would be a trainee and made her sign a bond of 4 year (2 years as a trainee and 2 years as an employee with a penalty amount of 7.5 lakhs). She is being paid a stipend instead of a salary, she doesn't receive a pay slip, she has to check her bank statement.
It's training disguised as employment. They make her work 68 to 72 hours instead of 48 hours per week without overtime. There are days when proper breaks aren't provided.
There have been days where breaks longer than 15 minutes on a 12 hour shift have been denied, the frequencies of such instances have increased recently
She was promised multiple sessions with leading industry specialists and factory visits. But the schedule is rarely updated. Only 4 sessions were conducted in a year, No factory visits. 2 HR sessions and 1 POSH session were also conducted.
She has also has harassment and unprofessional language at the workplace. She's raised 2 POSH complaints.
She received a message from a colleague at 3AM, which he later deleted. She was also threatened
The verbal abuser has argued / fought with her after a POSH complaint (Can this be considered as retaliation)
The use of degrading/unprofessional language in the office is common in the presence of female employees, please note that this wasn't directed towards my sister.
The manager/higherups were made aware of this multiple times but was dismissed as work stress.
No drops/security escorts were provided by the company post 8PM, she was forced to travel alone in Delhi at 10:30PM several times since 24th April. None of the other female employees received drops either, despite leaving post 8pm. The normal shift ending would be before 7PM but they asked her to extend till 10-10:30pm. She also spoke to the security manager who denied her a drop.
She has rapido receipts she took on several occasions as proof. Will this be valid? A call recording of an ex colleague complaining about the same issue is also available.
Security camera footage can also be requested by the hotel in which the restaurant is present. The Hotel is not related to the restaurant they are different companies. Is this a trustworthy source?
Voice recording of foul language used in the kitchen is also available. She has friends in the company who are willing to provide pictures of their punch in and punch out time to provide proof that long working hours is a common occurrence at this company, as long as their identities are not revealed to the company.
Is this enough to file a counter suit for the emotional distress/damage that she has faced