Experience letter/relieving letter not provided

1) U cannot force the employer to issue Service/ Experience Certificate.  Your appointment order, joining report, if any and the Relieving letter are proof for the prospective employer.

2)  The very fact of having received relieving letter indicates the charge under control is in order and duly handedover to the new incumbant or the authorised person.  It is also construed no dues to the company from your end.

3) Submit the available documents to the new Company and seek time to get the Experience Certificate from the past Company.

4) Meanwhile, try to talk to the HR and convince him not just sending e-mails also follow-up through ur past colleagues to obtain Experience Certificate and send it to u.

Dear Sir DrKattaVenkataRamaKrishna, I apprieciate your help. 

All I have for my record is the Offer Letter and my resignation acceptance letter from the this previous MNC. Neither I have relieving letter nor experience letter so I am lost and this new MNC is asking to provide the experience letter.  Expereince letter that will clearly mention  Name, Designation, Date of Joining and Last working day. I was advised that I will receive the letters with the clearance of my FnF settlement and I have received the FnF clearance amount and no letters received together or later.  Please advise so I can obtain this letters for my record and can join the new MNC with no trouble.

Record all calls and meetings.

Service Certificate has to be issued to all employees.

Relieving letter signifies that nothing is due against employee.

Don't remain entangled with HR personnel.

Escalate to good offices of appointing authority,MD,Chairman, under proper acknowledgment and narrate all previous representations and conlude that Service Certificate, Relieving letter were never supplied to you.

Attach appointment letter,form16,salary slips of all months,FnF statement,resignation acceptance letter,NOC/NDC/handover of charge,PF a/c slips,ESIC card to both current and past employer.Be frank to state that Service Certificate, Relieving letter were never supplied to you and hence can not be supplied by you.

IT /ITeS employees unions/Trade Unions and your able labor Law Consultant can help you.

Come back on response of good offices.

1) There is no law to force the Employer to issue Experience/ Service Certificate unlike in some other countries.

2) While Experience certificate is issued after termination of contract, the Service certificate is during continuance of employment both at the mployee request only.

3) Unless otherwise any adverse remark recorded in writing in service, the Experience Cert is issued in normal course after relief without any confronting approach.

4) The HR Dept is the mouthpiece of Top Management MD/CEO/COO/CMO, who also will be guided by HR experts and act as per their advice only.  Better explore first HR dept with a request explaining the reasons in urgency followed thereafter appeal to the Top Management.

5) Approach through Union/ Association being the first available redressal grievance to the first workforce, would have already been explored.

Standing Orders provides that Service Certificate is to be issued to all employees.

01) Experience Certificate, Service Certificate are positive and recommendatory in nature, cannot as a matter of legal right be claimed in India as of now whereas Certificate on termination of service otherwise speaks of.

02) Sec 16. Certificate on termination of service: Every permanent workman shall be entitled to a Service Certificate at the time of his dismissal, discharge or retirement from service.  The intention word Service Certificate referred herein meant to different context, also no mention of resignation.

03) The definitions of Workmen, Industry, Certificate on Termination of service etc. are all not applicable in the subject case as per INDUSTRIAL EMPLOYMENT (STANDING ORDERS) CENTRAL RULES, 1946.

04) Information Technology (“IT”) and IT enabled Services (“ITeS”) establishments in the State of Karnataka (Bangalore) have been exempted from compliance under the Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Act, 1946 (“Standing Orders Act”).  This exemption has been granted for a period of 5 years as per the notification issued by the State Government of Karnataka on January 25, 2014 (“Notification”) and is subject to certain conditions.

05) Given the information, it is not clear from which the nature of IT company, whether the Standing Orders are operative in the State of working, the designation, whether there is explicit provision to issue any such certificate in T&C of employment etc. are to be examined for legal enforceability.

Last Update received for smooth exit policy;

1.      Your separation process does not complete until you obtain clearances from the concerned stakeholders i.e. Library, IT Services, Admin, ISG, PMO, FLM, HR and T2ID. You will be able to view the status of your clearances from these teams in the EMS application under Self Clearance Status. You are required to coordinate with respective SPOCS to provide you with clearance before your LWD at XYZ.
2.      In the absence of the required clearance from any of the departments, your Relieving Letter and the Experience Letter may get delayed. Exceptions, if any, must also be obtained during the clearance process from the concerned stakeholder(s). You are required to obtain EMS clearances from all stakeholders except EHS 2 & 3 and then visit EHS to pick up relieving letter between 4 to 5 pm and also to get clarifications regarding PF/Pension, and to submit IT investment proofs. Experience letter is provided along with F&F Settlement.
3.      Recovery on account of the following is likely to take place from your Full and Final (F&F) settlement:
1.      Where the notice period served is less than the required notice period as mentioned in your appointment/ compensation letter.
2.      Where you have opted for a car under the Car Scheme, the balance of the installments (principal outstanding + VAT) will be recovered from your F&F settlement. Please get in touch with EHS and handover the cheque towards foreclosure of your car failing which your clearance from EHS shall remain pending.
3.      Where you have a Company Leased Accommodation and HCL has paid Security Deposit to the Landlord. Please submit the No Objection Certificate (NOC) from your Landlord to EHS on or before the LWD, failing which your clearance from EHS shall remain pending.
4.      The above mentioned requirements will need to be fulfilled and the required documents will need to be submitted by you to enable the EHS team to provide you with the Reliving Letter on your LWD. In order to ensure that the F&F settlement reaches you correctly, kindly ensure to fill in your correct & complete forwarding address and contact details (mobile no. and personal Email-id) in the EMS log-in.

As per my designation and project assigned, I had completed all necessary norms of the smooth exit policy, collected the Resignation acceptance letter from HR SPOC after completely serving my Notice Period and then relocated to another state on the same week, hence unable to approached/ made visit due to geographical distance. However kept communicating in email and updated the mailing address to the HR SPOC, after I received the email confirmation of Full & Final settlement amount to be released and as the F&F settlement amount was received on the electronic transfer upon my Backk Account, I forgot to raised questions over the F&F settlement statement and Experienced letters as mentioned in the policy as I was allready working on another project assigned by my new MNC after relocation.

It was recently I was asked for the letters to provide for verification purpose, I started to realized that I did not received it which I should have received earlier by the time the F&F settlement amount arrive over the Bank Account.    

My only concerns are:

1. Am I not going to received my Experience Letter ? If my previous MNC ignore/deny the Experience Letter, what should be my next step ?

2. What if I escalate this issue over the higher Management ? What if they mention bad remarks for me if I escalate it further? 

3. If nothing works, What is the legal steps that I can approach to ?

All I need is transparency over my request and a happy ending for all. 

Update: I remember and have the record on my end that I had withdrawn the PF and pension amount of this MNC where I resigned, I received the complete amount.  So far I am following up to F&F dept as per the HR SPOC advised and no response received. 

You have posted that:

"Experience letter is provided along with F&F Settlement."

Thus you are entitled for it as per private policy of the company.

IT comapnies are covered by Shops & Estbs Act that was enacted to govern service conditions of employees working in establishments covered by the Act.

Each company has to submit various registers prescribed vide Shops & Estbs Rules and one register is for DOJ/LWD etc.

You can approach Inspector apointed under the Act to get the certified copy even if thru RTI and Experience letter.

The website of Dept. of Labor also provides for list of Employee's/Trade Unions.YOU can aproach them.YOu can approach higher officials of Dept. of Labor as well.

IT/ITeS sector has many employee's unions affilliated with Trade unions and

YOU can aproach them.

The Service certificate/Relieving letter has been made mandatory by employers and is mandatory for you firming up your next source of livelihood.

Your employer has not supplied it to you.

You can approach court.

If you are unable to handle on your own entrust it to your able counsel.

Have you discussed the matter with an able counsel? If yes what is the opinion of your counsel?

Hi Have worked with My previous organization( Fareportal) from NOV 2006 - April 2013. I along with 100 other employee resigned in the month of April and as My notice period was for 15 days I asked them to adjust my leaves with the notice period.

Then i joined another company , but my previous organization ( Fareportal) filed a summon of 50 lakh against every employee who joined with me . The contract said i cannot work on the same field for atleast 2 years.

Now i got an opportunity to work with accenture and they need my first organizations relieving letter. I called them ( Fareportal) and asked for relieving but the refused to pay my gratuity or relieving letter.

Please advise should I approach a lawyer. What Should I do as I need to submit my relieving to accenture within a week.

Hi Have worked with My previous organization( Fareportal) from NOV 2006 - April 2013. I along with 100 other employee resigned in the month of April and as My notice period was for 15 days I asked them to adjust my leaves with the notice period.

Then i joined another company , but my previous organization ( Fareportal) filed a summon of 50 lakh against every employee who joined with me . The contract said i cannot work on the same field for atleast 2 years.

Now i got an opportunity to work with accenture and they need my first organizations relieving letter. I called them ( Fareportal) and asked for relieving but the refused to pay my gratuity or relieving letter.

Please advise should I approach a lawyer. What Should I do as I need to submit my relieving to accenture within a week.

So far I have not contacted any legal advisor as I am waiting for the response from this f&F dept where I had communicated through email as advised by the HR SPOC. Assuming if I get the letters ASAP or response so I can approach with the next possible measure may be legal advisor or RTI. I also have collected the PF transfer status over my account through this MNC who maintain a Trust, "Annexure-K -  XYZ EMPLOYEES PROVIDENT FUND TRUST " 

@ Lenin,

Don't remain entangled with HR personnel for ever and escalate to good offices of appointing authority,MD,Chairman.

If good offices also do not provide sought relief you may lean on your able counsel.

@ Thomas,

What was your designation and nature of duties?

Do you have the copy of the contract?

Did you recive the summons from court?

Did you serve the notice period?

Did you send final resignation?

Did yuo handover the charge?

Did the company ask to come and handover the charge?

Do you have copy of notice of resignation,final resignation?

Is it stated in contract that notice period can be adjusted against leave?

Did the company supply acknowledgment of notice/final resignation ,acceptance of notice/final resignation ,FnF statement, service certificate,relieving letter, NOC/NDC, handover of charge, notice of determination of gratuity, Form16 etc?

Did you ask to supply all of the above in writing?

Did the company decline to supply all of the above in writing?

Did you submit FormI?

You may post full facts of the matter.