Lost Experience Letter: Can We Reissue It and Should It Be Marked as Duplicate?

Dear Friends, I have a little doubt regarding the reissue of the experience and relieving letters. One of my employees left our organization six months ago, and we completed all the exit formalities. The experience and relieving letters were handed over to the employee at the time of separation.

Now, the employee has returned with a request stating that he has lost his original relieving and experience letters and wishes to have another copy. My questions are:

1) Can we issue another copy of the experience and relieving certificates?
2) If yes, should it be the same as the one given earlier, or should we write "DUPLICATE" at the top?
3) If no, why?

I am awaiting your early response.

Regards,
Sanjay

If this is the first time you are facing this dilemma, I empathize with you. The experience letter copy can be demanded by any ex-employee as and when he requires, as this is his legal right. It could be required to submit for multiple reasons, mostly for visa applications. Therefore, you can issue him an original letter again. There is no need to write a duplicate copy since there is no possibility of misuse.

Regards,
MA

You would obviously have a backup soft copy of the same. Just take a printout and resolve the issue. Also, warn the ex-employee that a similar request in the future will not be entertained.

P.S: If you want to complicate things, then you might consider your points 2 and 3.

"Life is simple; it's humans who create complications."

Regards

Of course, you can issue the letter again! You should ask your ex-employee to write an application regarding the loss of the letter and issue the new one. However, the letter needs to bear the same date as his relieving.

I agree with the points you mentioned. If you wish to complicate things, then you can consider the 2nd and 3rd points you raised.

Employee Tenure and Letter Reissue Concerns

The tenure of the employee mentioned in the letter cannot be changed. I am not sure if the date of the letter needs to be as per the original letter issued earlier. I think it can be the latest date.

What happens if the current signatory of the letter was not working with the company on the earlier date of issue of the letter? How can he sign a pre-dated letter when he was not working here?

Dear Sanjay,

Every company maintains a file for an employee. If he has already received his experience and relieving letter, then the same documents will be in his file. You can issue the same copy to him; there is no need to give him a duplicate copy.

Regards,
Derek Gomes

You can give him a photocopy of the same document that you have maintained in your physical file. I don't think there should be any issues.

Regards,
Pankaj

The employee who has worked with the organization in the past should be issued a new experience certificate after submitting an application for this purpose.

Best Regards,
Vikas Ranjan