What is epb recovery qtr?

This means that an employer will almost never be able to dock an employee's salary to recover damages or losses which the employee causes. This policy is applicable to all Permanent Delivery and Non–Sales Support employees of HCL Technologies and its various subsidiaries across. Performance bonus in HCL is divided in 4 parts, this is based on rating you achieve in you appraisals. No blanket pay cuts but variable pay may be impacted; expect recovery in H2FY21: HCL Tech management. In a step that turns the performance appraisal system on its head, the company is introducing an “engagement bonus”.

HCL claimed that it is not doing something new of which the employees are not aware. It already had in place a policy to recover the Advanced Monthly Performance Bonus (AMPB) back from the employees who resign from the organization in the middle of a financial year, thus, this policy claiming back the EPB is not very different from the existing policy on AMPB.

Cause Of Dispute

The cause of the dispute is that HCL did not include the term of claiming back the EPB in the offer letter at the time of engagement of employees. It was almost 7 months after its implementation had started, that the company sent out a broadcast email to all its employees stating that in case an employee resigns before the completion of a financial year, he/she will have to repay the Engagement Performance Bonus back to the company, which he/she received every month in that financial year.

In practice, the company had started implementing the recovery policy on the resigning employees since April 2021, by posting it on the HCL Policy Hub, without notifying them. The company has a portal which indicates the full and final settlement of claims at the time of resignation, called the 'Separation Portal'. On this portal, the resigning employees noticed that their amount was in negative / minus due to the company's demand of EPB back from its employees, which meant that they had to pay a certain sum to the company.

When a considerable number of employees complained to the senior management, a broadcast email was sent to all employees, intimating them about the recovery policy of the EPB in November, 2021, which is almost 7 months after its implementation had started.

Many employees refused to pay the amount claimed by the company in respect of the recovery policy. In response to this, the company refused to provide relieving documents such as experience certificate, relieving letter and other employment documents to the resigning employees. These are documents that employees would require in order to seek employment elsewhere.

Letter By NITES To The Labour Department, PMO And MCA

Pursuant to this, a letter has been sent by Mr. Harpreet Saluja, President, Nascent Information Technology Employees Senate (NITES), a Pune-based IT Union, to the Labour Department, PMO and Ministry of Corporate Affairs citing the grievances of the employees.

The letter stated that the said policy of recovering bonus already paid to the employees is iniquitous, arbitrary and harsh. It also said that the said recovery policy is violative of Article 14 of the Constitution of India as the policy was imposed without any statutory approval, resulting in hardship to the employees and far outweighs the equitable balance of the employer's right to recover. It would be impossible for the employee to bear the financial burden of a refund of a bonus amount which was received over a period of time under the pandemic conditions. Through the letter, the Union has sought prompt intervention to stop this harsh recovery bonus policy with immediate effect.

This has been forwarded to the concerned department and a reply has been sought from HCL Technologies.

Withdrawal Of EPB Recovery Policy By HCL

Meanwhile, the HCL withdrew its recovery policy with respect to EPB by revising its April 2021 policy. However, no broadcast email regarding this was sent to the Employees.

Future Course Of Action

HCL Tech will announce its December quarter results on Friday.

“HCL Technologies is an employee-friendly organization with global best practices.  Amongst its several unique initiatives,  HCL Technologies differentiated itself in the India market with a unique compensation structure for its junior employees’ (typically under 10 years of experience) with an aim to maximize their take home pay package. For more than a decade, all junior management employees were paid the variable pay in advance, as a supplement to their fixed salary,"HCL Tech told BT in response to a query

The IT services major added that the employment contract/policy very clearly stated the terms of payment. During the pandemic, beginning last year, the organization decided to waive off all the performance conditions attached to this component and pay 100% in advance to reward the employees. "This advance variable payout (much like standard sign-on bonus terms and conditions) would be deducted if any employee left ahead of the completion of performance review cycle, in the final settlement. Going forward, we will continue with the advance variable payout for our employees and have also waived off the recoveries w.e.f December 22, 2021. Our endeavor has always been to engage, enable and empower as we continue to work in a fair and equitable manner towards all,” it added.

However, the firm has not revoked another contentious clause that pertains to the recovery of the advance monthly performance bonus or APMB, Harpreet Saluja, president of Nascent IT Employees Senate, a body representing employees of IT/ITES sector, told Business Today.

While EPB is applicable across all bands of employees, AMPB is a project-specific bonus that is not paid to every employee, Saluja explained.

Also, former HCL Tech employees who had already repaid the bonus, are mulling approaching the labour court against the tech major and will be supported by the employee union.   According to emails seen by BT that were exchanged between the HR department of HCL Tech and outgoing employees who have been asked to repay the bonus components of salaries before quitting the firm, such a policy was implemented from April 1, 2021 onwards; a time when India’s IT services sector was grappling with concerns over massive employee resignations, which impacted the supply side and delayed delivery timelines.

According to this policy, the company had stated that it will recover the employee performance bonus from those who quit the firm between September 21 and March 22. The HR department had also sent a broadcast email to its employees on November 18, 2021, detailing the same.   However, it seems the EPB bonus recovery clause has now been removed from the policy document after an outcry. The company, like the other industry peers, has seen its attrition rate peaking to 15.7 per cent in Q2FY22, up from 11.8 per cent in Q1, FY22.

Moreover, a point to be noted here is that despite the resignations, the company has continued to add a record number of employees, with the addition of 11,135 people during Q2 -- the highest in 24 quarters.

Saluja argued that, as per law, payment of bonus is the statutory liability on the employer and receipt of the bonus amount is the legal right of the employee, and all this has been enshrined in the Payment of Bonus Act, 1965.

New Delhi: India’s fourth-largest IT services business HCL Technologies has deleted the controversial section of recovery of Employees Performance Bonus or EPB from its HR policy, according to the amended policy document on the company’s portal.

HCL, which is a well known firm with 1.9 lakh workers, was demanding resigned employees to repay variable compensation, incentives, and bonuses. HCL included additional conditions and guidelines in offer letters that require resigned workers to repay advance variable compensation if they leave before a certain period of time.

Even in some cases, these employees’ experience certificates were being denied,  they were informed that they needed to pay the incentive back to HCL in order to receive the experience certificate.

Harpreet Saluja, President of the Nascent Information Technology Employees Senate (NITES),  filed a complaint with the Labor Ministry , and termed this as illegal and unlawful. He said “Payment of bonus is the statutory liability on the employer and receipt of bonus amount is the legal right of the employee and the amount to be paid, to whom to be paid and by when to be paid has been well framed in the Payment of Bonus Act. The employer cannot unethically amend the bonus scheme depriving bonus to its employees. The employees who resigned from the service also are entitled to a bonus for their tenure.”

The company said that all junior management personnel received variable compensation in advance as a bonus to their fixed salary, as indicated in the conditions of payment .”During the pandemic, beginning last year, the organisation decided to waive off all the performance conditions attached to this component and pay 100 percent in advance to reward the employees. This advance variable payout (much like standard sign-on bonus terms and conditions) would be deducted if any employee left ahead of the completion of the performance review cycle, in the final settlement. Going forward, we will continue with the advance variable payout for our employees and have also waived off the recoveries w.e.f December 22, 2021,” said spokesperson of the company.

The new clause addressing the bonus recovery for employees who leave the firm between September 2021 and March 2022 was missing from the most recent policy document.

While the firm has  revoked the policy, it only applies to the Engagement Performance Bonus, a variable component granted to employees on a monthly basis, according to Saluja. The Advance Monthly Performance Bonus has not been cancelled and will be recovered from employees. NITES is also attempting to reverse the recovery.

HCL Technologies is making headlines for all the wrong reasons. The Nascent Information Technology Employees Senate (NITES) has been receiving complaints from HCL employees about the IT major’s new Employee Performance Bonus (EPB) policy, which was implemented on January 2 this year. Following receipt of these complaints, the Pune-based labour rights organisation has filed an official complaint against HCL.

The Company reportedly informed its employees that if any of them (offshore staff) quit in the middle of the year, they will have to return the monthly performance bonus they have earned throughout that year, calculated till the last working day.

The offsite employees of HCL are paid this bonus on a monthly basis. The onsite employees who are paid quarterly bonus, will have to forego the bonus for the quarter in which they leave.

It is reported that HCL employees who do not return the bonus as required by the Company will run the risk of having their experience certificate and relieving letter along with other documents and benefits being held back.

The Pune-based NITES maintains that such a recovery of bonus is unfair and unlawful, since it will be next to impossible for any employee to return such a significant amount at the time of leaving, and that too amidst the uncertainties and hardships imposed by the pandemic. It apparently goes against the Payment of Bonus Act too which states that a bonus is a legal right of an employee, even if he or she has resigned, unless and until the concerned employee has committed a grievous fraud or has been violent or has misbehaved or done any harm to the company or employer.

The IT company, however, maintains that it has always been fair to its employees and has always followed lawful HR practices.

In yet another big win for HCL employees, the company has stopped recovering all types of advance bonuses paid to the employees.

This means that the resigned employees won’t be forced to return the bonuses already paid, and there will be no arm-twisting.

What is the role of Nascent Information Technology Employees Senate (NITES) in this whole incident? And how does this happen?

Keep reading to find out more.

We have received confirmed evidence that HCL has now stopped recovering all types of advanced bonuses paid to the employees.

HCL was still recovering advance monthly performance bonus (AMPB) from their resigned employees, and stopping their relieving letters/certificates if any employee failed to return this bonus.

This has now stopped, and this is indeed a big win for the HCL employees.

Reacting to this news, Harpreet Saluja, President, Nascent Information Technology Employees Senate NITES said, “It gives us immense pleasure to share with you the success story of Nascent Information Technology Employees Senate NITES against unethical bonus recovery policy of HCL Technologies.

HCL Technologies had unethically introduced policies to recover bonus already paid to its employees by inserting bonus recovery clauses in Policy documents and Employment Letters. The company has already recovered crores of rupees from employees.

As per law payment of bonus is the statutory liability on the employer and receipt of bonus amount is the legal right of the employee and the amount to be paid, to whom to be paid and by when to be paid has been well framed in the Payment of Bonus Act 1965. The employer cannot unethically amend the bonus scheme depriving bonus to its employees. The employees resigned from the service also are entitled to bonus for their tenure.The said policy implemented by the company to recover bonus already paid to its employees forcefully is iniquitous, arbitrary and harsh. It is also to be noted that such a recovery policy without any statutory approval is resulting in a hardship and it far outweighs the equitable balance of the employer’s right to recover. It is almost impossible for an employee to bear the financial burden of a refund of payment of bonus received over a period of time under the current pandemic conditions. Hence the said recovery policy was in violation of article 14 of the Constitution of India.”

We had reported how HCL suddenly changed their rules for new employees, and included a clause to recover the advance bonus paid to the employees.

We found that, as per the new policies, which were clearly anti-employees, HCL was arm-twisting their resigned employees to return the bonus, which was already paid to them.

Now, there were two types of such advance bonuses: EPB (Engagement Performance Bonus) and AMPB (Advance Monthly Performance Bonus)

After due pressure from the employees, and NITES, HCL had stopped recovering the EPB bonus, but they were still recovering the AMPB bonus from the resigned employees.

Now, they have stopped recovering the AMPB bonus as well, thereby ending this saga of arm-twisting their resigned employees.

Right from day 1, NITES or Nascent Information Technology Employees Senate had been fighting tooth and nail to stop this recovery process by HCL.

After hundreds of employees complained to NITES, their President, Harpreet Singh Saluja, shot a letter to the Labor Ministry, and asked for intervention.

Harpreet said, “We welcome this decision of HCL Technologies. We also congratulate all the employees of HCL Technologies for this big win as their hard earned money will be saved now. We are now working towards refund of bonus amount that was deducted from the employees full and final settlement who have already left the organization.”

We will keep you updated, as more details come in.