Should I agree to accept any further addition of rules to the company policy? [closed]

I have been a senior software engineer in an Indian based company and owners of the company are an Indian as well for the last two years. Recently all employees were given an agreement to sign. Below is an excerpt:

In reference to the ongoing business dynamics, we have incorporated a
few amendments in the employee handbook and incidental rules and
regulations of the establishment. Being a part of establishment, you
are requested to kindly study the same in depth. Should you agree the
amendments, kindly sign this copy in the duplicate and share as a
token of acceptance.

I hereby agree and accept the above-referred changes, totally and
unconditionally. I undertake and agree to work on the prevalent terms
and conditions and be abided by the rules and regulations in force
and which may be added / or amended from time to time. I have
understood the same in the language known to me.

One of the points in the handbook is to prevent an employee from looking for a new job while the employee is still actively employed by the company. That means an employee must not appear on job sites such as Naukri or TimesJobs.

My concern is: why is the company now requiring this agreement, even though all employees were already following the rules and regulations properly?

Also, can I decline to accept any rule in the handbook? If yes, how can I politely refuse to sign the agreement?

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3 Answers
3

If yes, how can I deny to sign the letter politely?

My experience with issues like this is to ignore/forget/lose them as long as possible while I watch what the other staff do.

Sometimes there is wholesale rejection and it's withdrawn, sometimes someone gets terminated, sometimes it just goes away. But the longer you can hold out, the more chance you have of seeing what the consequences of not signing are.

This gives you both time and information, both of which may be very helpful.

No, you should not sign.

Send back a revised contract in which you mark your changes or ask them to change the contract as follows:

remove

"and which may be added / or amended from time to time"

and replace with

"at the time of signing this contract."

Should they insist that they want / need to amend their rules ask to include something along the lines of:

"Amendments or changes to the employee handbook and incidental rules and regulations of the establishment shall be attached to this contract as amendments after signed by both parties.

I recommend to seek legal advice if possible.

If the handbook and rules and regulations are not part of the contract (which they usually aren't) they are either a separate contractual document or automatically enforced by the company and anyone must abide by them, nonetheless.

Legality and common practice regarding this differs between countries and should be evaluated by legal counsel.

If the condition is to where they have too much control over your personal
life, discuss it with some coworkers and see if they are agreeing to it without thinking again, or if they aren't too sure.

If a few people are simply not going to sign it, then so be it and see what happens.
I think your best bet is to wait and see both the consequences of not signing it and the consequences for disobeying rules in the handbook.

Whether or not you are willing to sign it should depend on future consequences and not an immediate impulsive reaction of "yes" or "no."