Delay In Gratuity Payment By Employeer - PDF Download

Hi,
I worked in a public limited company for period of 12 & half years.
I resigned from the company in the month of Dec 12 & till date company has not paid :
1. Gratuity
2. Full & final i.e. arrears including notice period etc...
Reason for delay as mentioned by company is \"financial / cashflow issues\".
My specific query is with regards to gratuity payment - what should be next action, what is suggested legal recourse ?
Regards,
Neeraj

Gratuity is expected to be paid to the employee within 30 days of his leaving the service. It is mandatory even if the employee does not apply for it. In your case it is already one year since the amount has become due. The time set for recovering gratuity from the employer with the intervention of the Controlling Authority, ie, the Labour Officer is 90 days which has also ended. However, if you submit to the labour Officer that the delay was caused due to a faith on the employer that they will pay it once their financial crunch is over, then the Officer can entertain your application for recovery of gratuity. The application shall be submitted in form N. On receipt of the application in form N, the Controlling Authority (Labour Officer, Asst. Labour Commissioner, as the case may be) will issue directions to the employer to appear before him and sort out the issue.

Attached are form I (which is original one to be submitted to employer for claiming gratuity) and Form N to be submitted to Controlling Authority

Regards,

Madhu.T.K

Can I apply for gratuity payment 5 years after leaving the organization. I have not received the gratuity payment as yet. I did not take any action earlier.
Can I fill up form I now and send?

I think you have not read what I have written. Though there is a time within which your gratuity claim should be submitted, you can still have the right of claiming it if the reasons for the delay is justifiable. In your case if there has been no initiative from the employer to pay the gratuity, you can claim it by your own. Please note that the obligation to find out the left employee and pay the gratuity is on the employer and not on the employee and therefore, if you submit that there has been no intimation of payment of gratuity from the employer, the delay happened and since the employer has failed to pay it you are approaching the Labour department.
Madhu.T.K

You can still claim your gratuity provided you are able to explain the reason for the delay.

can contract employee claim the gratuity?

The issue of contract labour demanding gratuity is to be viewed with reference to the contract itself. If the contract is genuine, then the workers engaged through a contractor cannot claim any gratuity from the principal employer but can demand it from their employer, ie, contractor. But if it is a camouflage arrangement or the contract is sham, then they can claim it from the principal employer. Not only gratuity, workers engaged by such a contractor can even demand that they should be regularised as employees of the Principal employer. Therefore, what is important is the genuiness of the contract.