Employee Left Without Notice: Can We Contact Their New HR About It?

Dear Senior, I am working for a small IT firm. I have one query: one of our employees has left our organization without giving any prior information. He has left our project incomplete, causing a lot of problems for us. The employee has already joined a new company. Is it possible for us to ask the HR of that company how they employed him since we have not yet officially relieved or terminated him?

Regards,

Have you first informed the ex-employee about the consequences of his actions at your end? I suggest sending him an email/letter [with Read Receipt/Ack] summarizing the situation he has put your company into and also informing him that you MAY invoke the relevant clauses of his Appointment Letter—reg NP/Termination. If he doesn't respond in a reasonable timeframe, then you can write to the HR of his current company that you are intending to take legal action against him and your company can't be held responsible for any unpleasant situations that can arise at their end due to this.

I suggest that you do NOT focus on questioning them or their actions [like you mentioned: "...how they have employed him..."]. What they do or did isn't your concern or in your control. Just focus on what YOU INTEND TO DO from your end and mention the same. However, please also be clear in your mind that this company DOESN'T seem to have any objections to the guy joining WITHOUT any Relieving Letter, etc. So their responses MAY NOT BE what you expect.

Also, please be clear about your CORE objective—is it to get your work done or to ruin his career? I wouldn't suggest you opt for the latter one—he will get hit anyway in his career with such an attitude. Focus on getting him to complete the pending work and going in the proper way—or at least to hand over properly to someone else in the company and get relieved as per company norms/rules.

All the Best.

Regards, TS

Dear Tajsateesh, thank you for your reply. We have already sent the show cause to him, but then he got his parents involved and tried to put pressure on us to release his relieving letter. However, he has already signed a 1-year service contract with us, where it is clearly mentioned that if he breaches the contract, he will not be given his relieving letter. Since he is trying to act smart, my operations person wants to take some action against him to prevent any future occurrences.

Please guide me in the same respect.

Regards,

You have not mentioned the alternate mechanism to be enforced if he quits like he did—usually, most companies have some monetary figure—pay some amount if you resign before the contract/bond period. If it doesn't exist in your company, maybe you need to think regarding this aspect too—more to do with practical and legal aspects. I am not sure exactly, but I don't think any company can get away legally with not giving the relieving letter, under whatever pretext.

Since you have already walked the first few steps in the process and since he has involved his parents too, I suggest you also ask him to bring his parents for a chat and then use them to build up pressure on him—to get relieved properly, if needed by paying some compensatory amount to the company. You can also drop subtle hints that you will be alerting/approaching the company where their son just joined. I am sure they will know the consequences without you having to actually do it.

All the Best.

Regards,
TS

Thank you for showing me the correct direction to take in this case. We have one more issue where an employee was attempting to disrupt the office culture and was consequently terminated by the company with short notice. He has since requested his final payment and relieving letter. Please provide guidance on how to handle this situation as well.

Regards,

Thank you for guiding me in the right direction with this case. There is another issue we are facing where an employee was attempting to disrupt the office culture. As a result, the company terminated his employment on short notice. The employee has since requested his final paycheck and relieving letter. I would appreciate your guidance on how to handle this situation as well.

Regards,

Dear TS,

The guidance you have given is really superb. Keep going.

With Regards,

G. Anand
UFT Solutions

Thanks, G. Anand—just fulfilling my role, I guess. And mdkurlekar11—coming to your second query about the firing of an employee, I suggest you don't hold back the documentation—whether it's the Relieving Letter or otherwise.

But you haven't mentioned whether this guy was informed of the reasons 'why' he was being terminated ["...trying to spoil the office culture..."] and also what you mean/define by 'spoil the office culture'. Since you are in the IT industry, you would be aware that a few aspects that are quite normal/passe in the IT sector would be absolutely not acceptable in the Non-IT sector. Unless you have the HR Handbook in place within the company, it's tough to enforce such things legally and practically, in any worst-case scenarios.

To handle this specific case, suggest making him understand that what he did was very inappropriate in an official environment and then give him the Relieving Letter and other documents which he will need throughout his career, with a clear hint that the Company does have a choice of mentioning the actual reason for his termination in the records (which would be the only info to be accessed by any HR person during every future background check by his future employers down the years)—but wouldn't like to do so in the interest of his career. I am sure he will get the message and he may not press for his salary...or at best may settle for something in between what's okay for both.

I would suggest the second option/possibility (settling for something in between)—since it's always better for someone to leave without ill feelings, to the extent possible, and at the same time handle the company's interests. Plus, you will also need his F&F Settlement signed by him for your records, and this would also be a way to inform other employees as to what's acceptable and what's not, all the while being fair even in such matters.

And, I also suggest you get the HR Documentation (Handbook, Policies, etc.) in place ASAP—to ensure you don't land up in such situations in the future.

Regards,
TS

Please remember, you cannot ask the new HR why they hired without a relieving letter. They are not responsible to you. Where does it say in the rules that they have to take a relieving letter? How many people have you taken without a relieving letter?

However, since you want to get back at him, it seems petty enough.

Call their HR and inform them of the behavior of your ex-employee as a warning to them of what type of person they have employed. Tell them that you are taking action against him for a breach of contract and that you may have to send them a notice too since the lawyers are asking you to do so.

Forward a copy of your showcase notice to the new HR.

That will help. Talk to your lawyers and see, I think there is actually a clause in the contract act where you can send a notice to someone who induces a breach of contract.

If you want to cause trouble for your ex-employee, file the case. If he has to keep taking leave to attend court cases, then his new company is likely to kick him out.

However, you better sit with your MD/CEO and figure out the impact of all of this. There would be two different messages that could go out. One that employees will think that you are a no-nonsense company and will take action against any person who leaves without completing the contract. Second, that you harass your employees/ex-employees so you are not a company they should join or work for. This is critical. You should not lose out on this in your eagerness without realizing the consequences.