Why have an employment bond?

My brother had two Job offers in hand after completing his Engineering. One had an Employment Bond while the other didn’t have. My brother decided to go for the latter job. That is because for young job hoppers, Employment bond can often be detrimental. IT companies hire students in large numbers from engineering colleges and hence are not necessarily hiring the best brains. In such a situation, in order to get the best brains to work for you, the employment bond is again a barrier.

It is legitimate for a company to recover the cost incurred in training but is the value of the bond based only on this cost and perhaps an additional cost of training when new recruits will have to be trained? If it were so, then why does the value of the employment bonds differ from company to company in the same sector? Talking along similar lines many suggestions have come up, that since the government is spending so much on institutes like IITs and IIMs, the students there should be bound by a bond to work for the country before moving out. But again that is restriction and forcing people to work in a particular organization or in a particular frame of time cannot bring out the best in them.

Now if someone breaks an Employment bond and does not pay the amount, what action is taken? Most often legal action is not taken. Measures like not giving the experience certificates or any payment due are followed. Thus, employment bonds do not serve the purpose rightly either for the employees or for the employers.