Is Submission Of Original Reliving Letter Mandatory To A Company

Dear All,
I was offered in a MNC software company XXXXX as Manager. But the offer letter in annexure 1 says i need to submit the original copy of the reliving letter from my most recent employer.
They also say that they would return it back after three months.
Would request you to share your views, is it a mandatory policy for any employer to deposit the New Employees most recent reliving letter ?
Please advise
Regards,
Shiv

Hi Anil,
But 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 original must be crazy.
Pon

Dear shiv,
This can not be stated to be mandatory.
Regards,
R.N.Khola

Some organisations, especially IT companies do ask for the original relieving letter form the immediate previous organisation. This is done so that the candidate cannot parallely get employment elsewhere on the basis of this certificate. In case you have a different letter 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 is the same, you can as an ex-Employee, always ask for a duplicate from your earlier employer.

Hello Shiv,

Balaji S. is right.

Just as many candidates come-up with ingenious ways to jump the gun, so too the companies try to catch-up :-).

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

However, take the precaution that Balaji mentioned--instead of loosing this opportunity: Take Different Letters for Relieving and Experience.

Now looking @ this situation from another perspective, pl 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.

Rgds,

TS

Hello Balaji & TS,
I concur with both of your suggestions & thoughts.
Whats bothering me is
* They are not even ready to give an acknowledgement of the deposited original reliving letter!!.
* In the annexure sheet, i don't see any authorized signatory, while rest of the sheets are signed by an authorized signatory.
Best Regards,
Shivaprasad

HR department in most companies cross certain courtesies in their eagerness to protect their companies interest. Most companies are better than their HR departments. So do not judge the prospective company by the behaviour of the HR dept, instead try and get a more rounded feedback on them from grapevine, internet, future colleagues etc.

Dear Shaiv,
Have u asked the HR manager over there why do they require an original copy of the relieving letter instead of xerox copy. I am sure there will be some reasons for the same.
Different company have different rules & reuglation we need to adhere to that. As per rules the candidate has to submit xerox copy of all certificates, relieving, expereince letter as per annexure mentioned in the offer letter.
So if you think that the HR Manager of the company is faking with you then i think you need to clarify the same with him before taking any decission or having a perception about him.
Regards, Derek Gomes

• Asking for original relieving letter of recent employer at the time of joining is very common practice. In instant case employer is insisting for depositing original relieving letter for a period of 3 months, which is bit unusual.

• Firstly employer is ensuring that new employee has been relieved by his last employer in a formal manner. Employer is ensuring that, new employee has fulfilled all his obligations with last employer which he expects from any of his employees, like serving of notice period and proper handing over of responsibilities and clearance of all dues.

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

• Secondly, by holding original letter for three months, employer is also restricting the chances of new employee deserting new job for new offer elsewhere. Chances of new employee leaving the job for some other job offer are very high, in initial 3 months.