Due to Covid-19 I am having a lot of issues with my company and its management which is treating employees like slaves, who are unable to quit because of contracts, are unpaid in times of crisis and the management is threatening to sue employees that have no choice but to work as a freelancer or abscond to work elsewhere to make ends meet. I have to look for a new job elsewhere, I have no savings, have 9 dogs to feed and my company won't give me WFH even though it's a small scale company and I'm the only Game Designer/Artist/Web Designer/Animator (I'd like to call myself a Design Generalist). Basically I'm the one who designs, there are 2 Unity Devs and 2 Testers, 1 Boss, 1 Accountant, 1HR, 1 Tech Director (now officially not working but working as a close friend of our boss), a Lawyer that recently finds exploits in contracts to bind employees into slavery and some IIM pass out guy in London for marketing. So far, the one who work on the actual product of the company, 5 of us have not gotten our salary for the month of March (24 working days) and won't be getting any salary for the time period of Covid-19 lockdowns. Even after several requests from the team to allow us to WFH the management refuses using security of the project as an excuse. The management won't lay us off, won't let us work, won't let us quit and won't pay us at all and is holding our salaries for March and our documents (exp. certificates, salary slips) as hostage and is threatening to sue us if we leave without fulfilling the 3 month notice period that the management updated in their contracts by holding our salaries and raises hostage ( a few months ago ). The 3 month notice period will only be started once the Covid-19 lockdowns are ended and may be restarted if a lockdown happens between the 3 month notice period (our tech lead is already suffering because of this logic, his notice period is to be restarted after the lockdown, he quit this February). So, my question is how do I deal with this? I've got 10 creatures for feed and there is no source of income. I applied to a big company in Gurgaon but their response was that I cannot abscond and I have to finish my notice period. But I have an exception that I didn't renew my contract which expired in July 2019. So will my exp from July onward count? Will I get a job without documents from this company? I apologize for the long post.

Hey @white-helicopter-24361 firstly, I am very sorry to hear this. It is a horror story from hell. Secondly, contracts unless signed on stamp papers cannot be upheld in a court of law in India. So the question to sue does not arise.

@white-helicopter-24361 +1 on above and please record all communications - written, verbal etc with the company and do keep it as the company can get massive bad PR if media covers it & you can use that as collateral always till you get paid. Regarding your ongoing income, do you know people in the industry that can give you work based on your skills? Can you work on getting clients in next 1-3 weeks online? There are plenty of websites that would have on-demand design freelance work that you can get if you follow a strategy and work on it - I can share some resources too if you want to do that

So far I have not been involved in any discussions with Boss and HR in order to avoid conflict (since I have to offload some stuff from office PC for my portfolio and I would very much like to get an experience certificate and salary slip since it's really difficult to get a good salary without those), but other employees have been and we're discussing about it on our chat groups. And bad PR may not hurt the company since they've already registered a new company under a new name and our contracts have not been updated yet. And I cannot work yet as my laptop is not powerful enough for the kind of work I do. I can barely push 10k polygons in a 3D model with my machine. So I'm stuck in a very bad situation right now. I just wanted to know if companies still require experience letters, salary slips and other docs for me to get a good salary. My previous salary was way too low for me to even pay rent and I got a huge boost (5x) when I joined this company because of my skills (but after a 6 month probation period). So I would like to avoid getting paid my previous salary, and I cannot ask companies to test my skills because of lockdowns. I can do UI design for apps and websites on my machine but that's not my field so my experience is 0 in that although I made UI and worked on UX of games for past 2 years, so does that count as UI/UX Design?

@white-helicopter-24361 So will my exp from July onward count? In case you can explain your work and situation it does not matter regarding experience letter on paper , what matters is how you explaining this. Will I get a job without documents from this company? For sure you can get the job , in the end your skills is what matters most My suggestion is to move on from this organisation , keep all the communication records with you , if you want to expose then do it and tag that iim guy also But do not waste your all energy over this bcoz in the end it will be you who will waste time over all this so do not put all the efforts into doing this

I will try to pass on suggestions to my team. I guess I will have to just abscond and look for new jobs.

@white-helicopter-24361 I'm not much aware of the gaming industry and how the recruitment goes around that place, but for the dogs, as a pet owner, I can definitely try to get someone to help rescue and take care of them for a while.

Sorry to hear this man, sounds like a bad dream. Again, not an expert in gaming industry. But as a designer (product, ux) with around 6 years of experience I'd say one thing. Use this time to work on your portfolio, build a website and showcase your best work there. I never worked for an MNC but having a solid portfolio always replaced the need for salary slips and documentation in design field, let you work speak. Though it might not help in immediate situation but will help a lot with closing a new gig/job. I'd love to help you with setting up this or in any other way possible. If you have any existing profile/portfolio, please share. I can try sharing it with few people who might be interested.

@straight-continent-34777 I had 6 puppies up for adoption before the lockdown and now it's just getting more difficult. I would like them to be adopted somewhere, I had arranged for their transport to Assam with my girlfriend and adoptions there but now I'm just using up that money for our survival. I'm giving up on dealing with my current company for now. I'll do something about them later after securing a job for myself otherwise they will do this to others too.

Well, from the initial message and the on above - you're thinking straight. And thats good..

@dry-waitress-7852 Thanks! I have an old portfolio website and a Behance account. I'll update those with new stuff.

@white-helicopter-24361 May I ask how long you've worked for this company? Given the terrible situation you're in, and the scumbags you're working for, do you think the situation will ever improve? Scumbags will be scumbags. My advice is to get out of the situation as quickly as possible even if it means losing some money. You can be truthful in your interviews about why you left.

Once this vivid situation is over, approach the labour court. Start maintaining paper trails (emails, SMSes etc) for evidence. Prefer written communication over verbal for same reason. Generally it's best to approach labour court via lawyer who can navigate the process. Lawyer might be expensive for one individual, but perhaps many employees (who are in similar condition) can group together to hire one.

@white-helicopter-24361 Share your profile with me. I have worked at Ubisoft before. Would be happy to forward it there.

@white-helicopter-24361 If the contract also entitles you the salary, them not paying you salaries has already violated the contract. Also, contracts cannot be one sided and courts shouldn’t allow them to sue you for quitting because you aren’t getting paid. I am not a lawyer, but you should definitely check this with a lawyer. If they have threatened you in such way - it’s extremely unethical, and bad press is going to haunt them if you expose this. I’d consider talking to the stakeholders, including investors to find an amicable way out. Hiring new staff is a significantly less of a headache than handling bad PR and its trails for the rest of their lives.

@helpful-gigabyte-47939 I have worked 13 months for this company. I wanted to get out now but then I realized I didn't have any time to build my portfolio and all my work is on the office machines. I'm hoping I can still leave the company on some good terms and get permission to show my work. At this point I don't care about money but about getting my experience certificate, salary slips and portfolio since it will be very difficult to get new jobs without them.

@white-helicopter-24361 bad PR affects the founders and investors, not just the company’s brand name. A quick google search tells me who the founders are by the way. anyway, hope everything gets better, all the best!

Yes it can affect the founder but I don't think that the founder knows that. Why would someone treat their employees like that. Either let us go or pay us. If they expect employees to give their best work, if they work at all, after all this they might not be too bright.

@white-helicopter-24361 Given that they could close the company and start a new one, be prepared for the worst. IMHO, you should start looking for a new job assuming you don't have an experience letter for those 13 months. Be truthful about your situation in any interviews. Get out of the bad situation first, then think about taking them on.

Already working on that, thanks 🙂