I’m from India, I’m working as freelancer( Software Engineer). I worked for one of Indian start-up as freelance software consultant for 7 months.
Unfortunately, I don’t have any legal agreement and company owner pay me for first two months and now he refused to pay me for my work. I asked lot of time for pending payment but he always giving me excuse since last 6 months.
Recently I called to company owner and asked for payment, He said - I don’t have money I cannot be able to pay you and do whatever you want I’m not going to pay you!
So please suggest /guide me what should I do at this moment and how should I get my payment!
I’ve been there, moments when a client even though I have their root account to their servers do some crazy stuff and act like they’re not gonna pay and flat out say they won’t everytime I chose to do the right thing and even though deep down I just wanted go ssh into the server and rm -rf / in the end I decide it’s not worth it they always come back and realize they’re wrong and pay. So if i did what first crossed my mind I would not gotten paid anyway and would probably just hinder my reputation as a freelancer.
You are a good guy Robert. I’ve got to admit that I would not be quite so accommodating. Of course, it depends on why they cannot pay. For example, if the company is having a cash-flow problem then of course you want to help. But, if it is a case where the client cynically took the contractor on, all the while knowing that they were not going to pay, and I have seen this happen!, then I would respond accordingly.
By the way, ssh and rm -rf, there are perhaps better ways to respond in a way that the client does not know and incurs ongoing costs.
While what happened with you is very disappointing, this is always the risk while working with start ups. Most of them end up not paying salaries. If you have an offer letter or something which proves that you worked for them, then may be you can consult a lawyer. But that again depends on how much they owe you. Make sure your lawyer fees dont cost you much else it will not be worthy if your only concern is getting paid. If you want to teach them lesson, then lawyers fees must not be a concern. But it all depends on what legal form of working documents you have which proves that you were entitled to payment. I hope you get paid.
Well first of all learn from the lesson always get some legal work done.
Was this any kind of internship ?
Do you have any sort of legal work like offer letter, or any kind of document ?
Legally there should be a proof of the payment you received for the first 2months on that basis you can register a case if you want.
Legal Action
If everything fails, then you can go for legal actions. Below are all the legal actions that one can take if the owner is not paying up the money:
Remedies available under civil law:
Order 37 of Civil Procedure Code: This order is a power given to the person who wants to recover his money. This order permits creditor to file a summary suit. This order comes under the speedier trial. Once the suit is filed and summoned. The defendant has only 10 days to defend the suit. If the defend does not show up, then the court accepts the plaintiff charges to be valid. Defendant can defend his suit by providing evidence and clearing the cross examination. If the court is satisfied that the credit it not taken by the defendant, then nothing will be given to the plaintiff but if it is proved by the plaintiff that the defendant has taken money and not paying it then defendant has to pay money to the plaintiff and punishment can be served to the defendant.
Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881- This is act which deals with the non payment through cheque or bill of exchange etc. The act contains different sections for different instruments. Section 138 of Negotiable Instruments Act deals with the dishonour of cheque for insufficiency, etc., of funds in the account. If any customer delays the payment through cheque then the seller can file a suit against the customer under section 138 of Negotiable Instruments Act. Under 138, a legal notice is sent to the customer regarding the bouncing the cheque and if he does not pay within 30 days, then the seller can file suit against the customer under 138 Of NI Act regarding nonpayment of the payment.
Remedies under criminal law
Section 406 covers criminal breach of trust under the Indian Penal Code: Under Section 406 of the Indian Penal Code. Seller can file a suit for breach of trust. Seller have to prove that the customer has breached his trust by not paying the money against the product or services provided. “Punishment for criminal breach of trust.—Whoever commits criminal breach of trust shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to three years, or with fine, or with both”. Punishment is given to the person who breaches the trust.
Section 417 of Indian Penal Code: This section deals with the cheating. Cheating can be in any sense between seller and buyer or between any two people.”Punishment for cheating.—Whoever cheats shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to one year, or with fine, or with both”.
Section 420 of Indian Penal Code: This section gives relief to the person who is being cheated by someone. This section also includes cheating same as section 417. This section can be one provision on which seller can take action for non payment from the customer.
Now the important thing is you cannot let him go that easily
Try calling him again and again (record the calls)
If that doesn’t work out then it is time for some MF Damage.
Release the confidential files of the company on web anonymously
2.If by any chance you can remove the work you done for the company then do it. And use if for your portfolio
Contact the direct clients of your company to ruin their image
Very insightful Sachin. I am in a similar position. I will consult a lawyer & discuss above sections.. I have a PO, Sale order/Invoice, Half payment received in company account & half stuck.. Customer says they have no money & as soon as they get their payments, they will release our payments. I have WhatsApp chat from the company owner/MD directly & two calls recorded from the other company director.
Personally I did not wanted to engage into legal issues.. These guys are contractors & they are depending on payments from our nasty Indian government (whichever party it is) which always has personal interests.. Probably this contractor is stuck. But now I don’t damn want to care. I did wait for over 2 years now, continuous follow up for 1.5 years.. so got half amount.
I was working for this company as Sr. Software Engineer, I have 3+ year’s experience in Software Development, so this is not internship, I was leading his project.
Unfortunately I don’t have any legal documents or offer letter, but have 2-3 transactions from his company to my account. Also have whatsapp chat, call records and project source code.
@TecCoder If you cannot sell the diamond to that men then look at the competition.
You have the source code Sell it to similar Companies, Make the source code public.
And i think you are in a good position to challenge him legally. If you take any legal actions as there is no contract you can ask for more payment. A Sr. Software Engineer gets typically 60000-80000 per month This is the market trend.
I would strongly suggest you look for a lawyer and have a chat about your situation.
Isn’t there a escrow for these kind of freelance work ? because when you are a freelancer in india , people and government (whichever the party) here are not known for their trust !!!
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