Salary non payment after layOff - company is a BSE listed Public limited firm

I was laid off from my company on December 1 because the company had no business in my area. However, I have not yet received my salary. The HR department is not replying to my emails or attending calls. I am from Thiruvananthapuram district in Kerala state, and our company is located in Mumbai.

I worked as a Field Executive in Thiruvananthapuram District for a BSE-listed public limited firm (XXX Management Ltd.) under Mumbai Jurisdiction. Please suggest what I should do to recover my salary.

Dear Santhosh,

I would like to suggest that in the Indian context, the interchangeable use of the term "lay-off" with the term "termination of employment" can be avoided as the term "lay off" has an entirely different meaning under the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947. Though both terms denote a situation of unemployment at the behest of the employer, their connotations are different. "Lay off" signifies the temporary unemployment of labor caused by the employer due to his inability to provide work on account of certain specified reasons while the contract of employment is still in subsistence. On the contrary, "termination of employment" would refer to the cessation of the contract of employment by any act of the employer like retrenchment, discharge, and dismissal.

Coming to your query,

(1) You can raise an industrial dispute under section 2-A(1) of the ID Act, 1947 before the Labor Officer or Deputy Commissioner of Labor, Trivandrum, against your management. If the management responds, you can negotiate a full and final settlement in lieu of employment and get back all your monetary dues or move the Labor Court after obtaining a conciliation failure certificate.

OR

(2) If your only concern is your unpaid salary, you can file a claim under section 33C(1) of the ID Act with the Secretary to the Government, Labor Department, Government of Kerala for the recovery of the money due.