Is It Normal for Companies to Keep Your Original Relieving Letter for Months? Seeking Advice

Dear All, I have been offered a position as a Manager at the MNC software company XXXXX. However, the offer letter in Annexure 1 states that I am required to submit the original copy of the relieving letter from my most recent employer. They have mentioned that they will return it after three months.

Seeking Opinions on Relieving Letter Policy

I would like to seek your opinions on whether it is a mandatory policy for all employers to request the most recent relieving letter from new employees. Please advise.

Regards, Shiv

Hi Anil, they say it is mandatory, or else they would not proceed further.

Regards, Shiv

All the original certificates belong to you. The man who is asking for the originals must be crazy.

Regards,
Pon

This cannot be stated to be mandatory.

Regards,
R.N. Khola

Relieving Letter Requirements in IT Companies

Some organizations, especially IT companies, do ask for the original relieving letter from the immediate previous organization. This is done so that the candidate cannot simultaneously secure employment elsewhere using this certificate. In case you have separate letters for relieving and experience, I see no harm in handing over the original relieving letter to your new employer.

In case the experience letter and relieving letter are the same, you can, as an ex-employee, always request a duplicate from your earlier employer.

Balaji S. is right. Just as many candidates come up with ingenious ways to jump the gun, so too do companies try to catch up .

The very fact that the company has informed you that the original will be returned to you AFTER 3 MONTHS corroborates this aspect—they are just trying to ensure that you stay with them after joining. The presumption is that if you stay for 3 months, then you may not move out .

However, take the precaution that Balaji mentioned—instead of losing this opportunity: Take different letters for relieving and experience.

Now looking at this situation from another perspective, please ensure you have done the complete checks about this new company. One reason why they MAY be insisting on the relieving letter to be with them for 3 months COULD be their past attrition experience, which could be either due to the general industry trend OR something wrong with this company's policies. Hope you get the point.

All the Best.

Regards,
TS

I concur with both of your suggestions and thoughts. What's bothering me is:
- They are not even ready to give an acknowledgment of the deposited original relieving letter!
- In the annexure sheet, I don't see any authorized signatory, while the rest of the sheets are signed by an authorized signatory.

Best Regards,
Shivaprasad

Dear Shaiv, have you asked the HR manager over there why they require an original copy of the relieving letter instead of a xerox copy? I am sure there will be some reasons for the same. Different companies have different rules and regulations that we need to adhere to. As per the rules, the candidate has to submit xerox copies of all certificates, relieving letters, and experience letters as per the annexure mentioned in the offer letter.

So, if you think that the HR manager of the company is being dishonest with you, then I believe you need to clarify the situation with him before making any decisions or forming any perceptions about him.

Regards,
Derek Gomes

Request for Original Relieving Letter

Asking for the original relieving letter from the recent employer at the time of joining is a very common practice. In this case, the employer is insisting on depositing the original relieving letter for a period of three months, which is a bit unusual.

Firstly, the employer is ensuring that the new employee has been formally relieved by their last employer. The employer is making sure that the new employee has fulfilled all obligations with the last employer that are expected from any employee, such as serving the notice period, proper handover of responsibilities, and clearance of all dues.

By insisting on the original letter, the employer is minimizing the possibility of a forged or fraudulent relieving letter being produced.

Secondly, by holding the original letter for three months, the employer is also restricting the chances of the new employee deserting the new job for another offer elsewhere. The chances of a new employee leaving the job for another job offer are very high in the initial three months.

A lot of IT companies collect the original relieving letters from new joiners and return them within a specified timeframe. I think there is nothing illegal in this kind of practice, but from the employee's perspective, it may initially appear unusual. If the software company you are considering joining is a well-known and established organization, you do not have to fear losing your certificates, etc. There are many cases of certificate forgery, including relieving letters, so companies implement this mechanism to control forgery.

I have worked for one such company in HR, where we used to collect the relieving letter as part of the recruitment process and return it when the employee was relieved. This practice was implemented to manage uninformed exits.

Dear Shiva Prasad,

Balaji S's views are most prominent in this regard and match my views regarding the matter at hand. Some organizations, during the employee joining procedure, request original documents in addition to xerox copies. After verifying the originals, they return them to the concerned person within a prescribed fixed period. This is to ensure that the relieving letter is not used with another organization during the same period, preventing the employer from worrying about the newly recruited employee leaving the job during this time.

If you do not wish to submit the original relieving letter from your immediate previous employer, you should consult the relevant authority for submission of attested xerox copies.

Best Regards,

Vikas Ranjan

Submission of a photocopy of the relieving letter is a common practice in any organization. However, normally every organization verifies the original relieving letter and returns it to the employee after a proper background check. It is entirely unethical to retain the original document for 3 months. I believe this organization in India is the only one practicing such a policy, which is not mandatory as there is no provision requiring the retention of any original employee documents.

Thanks,
Amarjit
Bhubaneswar, Odisha

Dear Bajalaji 

Your reply is nice and true. Not only IT companies, but some other companies are also playing tricks like this, and this is not a healthy HR practice. One should not hold an employee by using these types of strategies or HR practices.

Dear SHIV, it's better not to join there. The company practices are not correct, and it seems to have a traditional approach towards HR. Things are going global, man  All the best 

Much regards,
Nagarjuna HR - NATCO Pharma

Forced Labor and Legal Implications

Asking for original documents is treated as 'Forced Labor' as per the ILO Convention. Moreover, this is not legal.

Regards,
Suprio