Bond is the Best

Bond is a very broad term. Its applicability is present in various sections, from creating a social and emotional ties (incase of relationship bond) to having an electrical force linking atoms (incase of chemical bond) to being a certificate of debt (usually interest-bearing or discounted) that is issued by a government or corporation in order to raise money (incase of financial bond) to be a bail money that must be forfeited by the bondsman if an accused person fails to appear in court for a trial (incase of criminal law bond). But the essence of bond remains the same. It is basically a tie or adhesiveness being driven by an emotional, social or legal contract. So the question arises how come the new baby in the bond family i.e. Employment bond be labeled as a villain destroying the relationship between the employee and employer.

The much of the discussion in the forum has revolved around the notion that employer forcing the employee to remain in the company because of various reasons. That basically goes against the principle of employment at will. Company might claim bond is a must because it represents a genuine estimate of damages that would reasonably be caused to the business of the Company on account of the breach of any of these terms & condition of employment and any other expenses relating to loss of man and machine hours which otherwise would have fetched a reasonable amount of profits to the business of the Company incase the employee leaving or abandoning the company during the bond period. The company might claim it has invested huge amount in training and skill development of the employee. The other reasoning behind the imposing of bond might be to curb the high attrition especially in the case of IT industry. From the employee point of view a bond works as great obstacle for his career advancement be it in terms of a better paying job or a better working environment or a higher and challenging role. So a bond might work as a demotivating force for an employee and which eventually will impact his performance. So to sum up a bond is employer friendly and a demotivating force for an employee.

During 2008-2009 the world witnessed one of the worst recession. It led to a huge business loss and as a result of that a larger number of employees being laid off. The same employment bond has rescued many. Firing an employee in bond period without any cause has lot of legal implication. So company tries it best not to fire employee in bond period. A typical bond agreement has most of time has the clause” Either party can terminate this employment by serving a notice of 60 days on the other after the

completion of the training period & the "Mandatory period of service"( i.e on completion of 24months

service from Date of Joining) (in case of satyam). So during the bad time when job security is the utmost concern of the employee the same employment bond becomes a boon for the employee. Now contrary to our earlier notion an employment bond is now employee friendly and a motivating force for an employee which can substantially improves his performance.

There is also human aspect of employment bond. Most of company waives off the bond incase of employee goes for a higher education. But this is not the only one human aspect. During the Sataym crisis the HR team took a very generous approach to waive off bond for its employees if they are able to find better job opportunities some where else. It might be working for their client or for competitor also. Though the HR people denied that they have relaxed the bond because in case of relaxing the bond in most of the cases it will be the key employee who will be availing this relaxation because it is people with good skills who will be able to find job during recession time. And this practice might make the company less attractive for a new buyer. But the reality is that although they have denied it officially, they practice it to a great extent.

The essence of employment bond is the mutual benefit of all party concerned. So it won’t be unfair to say “bond is the best”