19 August 2007
I am an articled clerk (finished PE II in November 2003) currently undergoing my 3rd year of articleship at a firm in Kerala . I would like you to clarify the following points with regard to my articleship :
1) I had taken 160 days of Leave in my days of Articleship. We are paid Rs. 5000/- per month in our third year as stipend (which is above the Institute rates). During the period of leave we are only paid the Institute stipend rates. Is it correct for my principal to do that? i.e. pay differing rates of stipend? 2) For every day of leave taken currently, we paid only after deducting Loss of Pay for the number of days leave we take. Is it correct for the principal to do that? Not only is our stipend reduced during the month but also we have to serve those leave days also as extra days after the period of our articleship. 3) During our period of articleship, we have served extra hours on many Saturdays (which happens to be a half day for our firm) but no credit has been given to us for that period neither any extra stipend given. Also we have worked extra hours during the months when Income tax returns and Audit returns have to be filed and similarly no credit of days or extra stipend has been given. Only for sitting late nights and working on holidays is credit of leave given. For every 3 days outstation audits we are credited with one day leave entitlement. This rule was bought in place during the second year of our articleship. 4) We have not been given our stipend for the months in which we have taken leave. Our principal says the same will be paid only during the months where we serve extra days. In which case we will be paid short by atleast 4 months. 5) Our principal has not provided us with the leave statement mentioning details of leave taken till date. As a result there is absolutely no clarity for the extra days we have served and the number of leaves we have taken. He promised to provide us with the same since November 2006 but no action has been taken on the same. I am very concerned about this.
As a matter of fact we had served with this firm even prior to our articleship period for about 7 months or so. It is indeed true that I do not have much awareness about the rules and regulations which govern our articleship. Please help by clarifying the above mentioned points. My issue gets compounded when I learn from my friends working for big firms, that they get credit hours for each extra worked, which is then added to their credit leave.
I do not wish to disclose my identity for fear of being harassed later, neither do I want to put my Principal’s reputation in jeopardy. Kindly understand. I am indeed a CA student going through articleship and my case is genuine. Your reply will help me in getting clarity on my position so that I can convince my Principal as to what the Institute says regarding these issues. Please help.
21 August 2007
regarding queries : 1)it is correct 2)no he can't deduct the stipened if u are required to do the extra days for leave taken 3) it depends upon the relationship b/w u & ur principle 4) it is wrong on the part of the employer. Being a ca final student i m with u .U should talk to ur employer straight away referring to the rules & regulations given in CA Rules for articleship.
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