noticeexecuted: served

Unpaid Salary and Dues Notice

An employee's written demand for unpaid salary and full-and-final dues, and for the release of employment documents. It records the employment, itemises what is owed — salary, notice pay, leave encashment, bonus, reimbursements — and names any papers the employer is holding back, such as a relieving letter, experience certificate or Form 16. Served by the employee. The employer's own statement of what it is paying out on exit — with the employee acknowledging receipt — is the Full & Final Settlement.

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What this document contains

5 clauses every unpaid salary and dues notice carries, plus 5 you can add.

01
Who the notice is from and to
The head of the notice: the place and date it bears, who it issues from, and everyone it is addressed to. Recipients are entered here rather than through the party picker — a notice is served on its recipients, not agreed with them, and the Sender is its only signatory.
02
Subject
The one line a recipient reads first, and the line the notice is later found by in a file. Written by the Sender rather than composed from the facts — those live on other clauses, and a clause cannot read another clause's data.
03
The employment
Who the Sender was, what they did, from when to when, and on what salary. Establishes the relationship the dues arise from.
04
What is owed
The dues itemised, because they almost never are a single sum: salary for particular months, notice pay, leave encashment, bonus, reimbursements. Nothing computes the total — it is the figure the Sender states, and it should be one the Sender can explain from the items listed.
05
The demand
The call to pay and to release the documents, and the time the Sender allows. The period is the Sender's own — the statutes govern when wages fall due, not how long a demand letter should allow — and nothing computes a date from it.

Optional clauses

Documents withheld
The papers the Recipient has not released. Half the reason a notice like this is sent: a relieving letter or an experience certificate withheld can stop a person taking the next job, whatever the money position. Optional, because not every employer withholds them.
Worth adding when: the employer has not released the relieving letter or other documents
Requests already made
A record of the times the Sender has already asked. Optional, because some notices are the first written communication after months of being told to wait.
Worth adding when: the sender has already chased the employer for the dues
What the Sender intends if this notice is not complied with
The paragraph a notice conventionally ends with, in which the Sender says what they intend if it is not complied with. Optional, and never added automatically: whether to say anything at all is the Sender's decision. Where the Sender has words of their own they are used verbatim; where they have none, a neutral closing sentence is rendered that names no remedy and predicts no outcome.
Worth adding when: the sender has said what they intend to do if the notice is not complied with
Enclosures
The documents sent with the notice. Optional, because many notices enclose nothing.
Worth adding when: the sender is sending documents along with the notice
Custom Clause
A free-form clause for bespoke provisions not covered by standard clauses. Use clauseId 'custom-clause-1', 'custom-clause-2', etc. to add multiple. The LLM provides clauseTitle and clauseBody. Use the sequence parameter to control placement.

What the law requires

When a period begins to run: A period running from receipt and a period running from the date of the notice count different things. Where a document is sent by post, service is deemed to be effected at the time the letter would be delivered in the ordinary course of post, unless the contrary is proved.; General Clauses Act 1897, s. 27
Stamp duty: The Indian Stamp Act charges the instruments listed in its Schedule. A notice is not among them: it creates no right, transfers no property and records no bargain.; Indian Stamp Act 1899, s. 3 and Sch. I
The dues arise from the contract and from statute: Salary, notice pay and contractual benefits are owed on the terms of the appointment letter. Statutory entitlements such as gratuity arise independently of what the contract says and cannot be contracted out of. A demand may cover both, and this notice does.; The appointment letter; Payment of Gratuity Act 1972; Code on Wages 2019
There are statutory time limits, and they are not this period: The wage legislation fixes when wages must be paid, including on resignation or removal, and the Payment of Gratuity Act fixes when gratuity becomes payable and provides for interest on delay. Those are separate from the period an employee chooses to allow in a demand letter, which no statute prescribes.; Code on Wages 2019; Payment of Wages Act 1936; Payment of Gratuity Act 1972
Withholding documents is a separate grievance: A relieving letter, experience certificate, Form 16 and provident fund paperwork are not payments, and a claim for them does not depend on the money position. An employer's obligation to issue them arises from the contract, from tax and provident fund law, and in some States from the Shops and Establishments Act.; The appointment letter; Income-tax Act 1961 (Form 16); the applicable State Shops and Establishments Act
Which forum depends on who the employee is: An employee who is a workman under the Industrial Disputes Act may pursue recovery through the machinery of that Act; others generally proceed under the wage legislation or in a civil suit. Gratuity has its own controlling authority. Which route is open turns on the role, the establishment and the State.; Industrial Disputes Act 1947, ss. 2(s) and 33C; Payment of Gratuity Act 1972, s. 7; Code on Wages 2019

Who signs it

Employee

After it is drafted

Getting it to the recipient
A notice takes effect when it reaches the person it names rather than when it is signed, so how it travels matters about as much as what it says. Registered post with acknowledgement due is the usual choice because it produces both a receipt and a card that comes back; courier and email do the same job where the agreement or the statute allows them. Whichever route it goes by, what it leaves behind is the part worth having.
Keeping the proof it was sent
The postal receipt, the acknowledgement card when it comes back, the courier's tracking printout, the delivery report on an email — whichever way it travelled, that record is what shows the notice went out and when. It tends to matter more later than the notice itself, because a recipient who says nothing reached them is answered by a receipt rather than by a copy of the letter. An envelope that comes back refused or unclaimed is worth keeping unopened for the same reason: refusing a notice is generally not treated as having escaped it.
Letting the period run
The period this notice gives runs from when it reaches the recipient, not from the date it carries — which is why the proof of sending matters for working out when it ends. Moving before it expires tends to undercut the notice, since the point of naming a period is to have given it. If a reply arrives, it is worth keeping with the proof of service: what the other side admits in writing can matter as much as what they refuse.
Where a wage claim goes from here
There are three routes and which one is open depends on what the employee is. An employee covered by the wage legislation has a statutory claim before the authority appointed under it, which is cheaper and faster than a court. Gratuity has its own controlling authority, separately. An employee outside both falls back on a civil claim on the contract. The statutory routes carry their own time limits, and those are not the period given in this notice and are often shorter than people expect — worth checking early rather than after waiting to see if the employer pays.
Documents being withheld
A relieving letter, an experience certificate or a Form 16 held back is a grievance in its own right rather than part of the money claim, though it usually travels with it in the same proceeding. Worth listing them separately from the wages when you take advice, because the remedy for each is different.

Grounded in

General Clauses Act 1897
Indian Stamp Act 1899
Code on Wages 2019
Payment of Wages Act 1936
Payment of Gratuity Act 1972
Industrial Disputes Act 1947 and State Shops and Establishments Acts

An appointment letter with pay and dates in writing is what makes salary conversations short.

Next time, start it in writing What a employment agreement covers

Unpaid Salary and Dues Notice

What this document contains

Who the notice is from and to

Subject

The employment

What is owed

The demand

Optional clauses

Documents withheld

Requests already made

What the Sender intends if this notice is not complied with

Enclosures

Custom Clause

What the law requires