Is it mandatory to issue Relieving Letter & Experience Letter to the employees resigning without serving complete notice period

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1

Hi,
Can anyone let me know the industry practice in issuing Relieving Letter & Experience Letter to the employees resigning without serving complete notice period ?
Do company still need to issue letter or can it be hold / deny to give?
Any Legality involved if not issuing in such category.

Also in case of Maternity availed employees not joining back or resigning without serving notice.

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2

Employees completing Exit formalities are eligible for getting Exp & Rel letters from HR department. There should be communication email roll out to employee left without serve NP days by stating their exit formalities is still pending with org. We can strongly deny of issuing letter.

3

Hi Nisha

You can send the Termination letter for those who have not resigned in a proper way so that we can avoid legal matters later.

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4

Hi @1907M0194, @Jhansi, @C0025,

As this topic is quite an interesting and debatable one, it will require some clarity on a few queries listed here below:

  1. Employees resigning without service complete notice period - here the question arises as to -
    A. what is the ‘notice period’? Is it 1 month or 2 months or more which may/may not be reasonable depending on the position of an employee. (some organizations purposely keep a 2 or 3 months notice period as a blank NP to all level of employees merely as a holding tact)
    B. Whether the employee resigned by notifying the employer in writing but didn’t complete the notice period? Or did the employee discussed the issues if any in completing the stipulated notice period? Are there any frictions between the employee and reporting superior due to which certain genuine issues didn’t cascade through to HR?
    C. Whether the knowledge transfer has been completed (if applicable) ?
    D. Whether the organization has a clearly communicated exit process stating the pros and cons?

These are some factors that will help to determine whether the employer can hold/deny the relieving letter, experience letter, etc.

Keeping this discussion on a healthy perspective, let us look at this denial/refusal to issue an experience letter or relieving letter, or even terminating an employee merely on the grounds of not serving the notice period completely:

An employee can be terminated on certain grounds as per the organization’s termination policy and there has to be a proportionality principle to be applied against such termination for certain acts/omission of an employee.

Any employee who has not completed the notice period, including an employee who has availed the maternity leave, still is entitled for their right to obtain a relieving letter/experience letter to the extent permissible/applicable relating to their service period with such organization, unless and until such employee has caused anything that falls squarely within the ambit of absolute denial of their rights (for e.g. employer as a company policy and as per applicable laws may deny employee’s right in case of misconduct, fraudulent acts, absconding from work, etc.)

Nevertheless, if an employee is found unethical abusing the employment terms and exit practices, the employer can place those facts in such relieving letters/experience letters as well. There is no impediment in an employer placing the unpleasant experiences with such an employee in writing.

Let us look for some views from the experts here.

Regards,
Bhuvana Anand

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