Employee Left Without Notice: How Should We Handle His Demand for Relieving Letter?

We had an employee working with us who we hired as a fresher. After working for 8 months, he resigned and requested to be released immediately without serving the notice period. He cited personal family problems as the reason for his sudden departure. We sent him an email stating that he needed to serve the complete notice period in order to be released properly, which he failed to do before leaving.

Subsequently, he followed up for his full and final settlement and certificates. We completed his full and final settlement and issued his cheque, which was successfully cleared by our bank. However, it should be noted that our finance department deducted some amount for the days he did not serve the notice period.

Now, he is demanding his relieving letter and experience letter and has threatened to file a legal case against us. We never intended to act unfairly towards our employee, but we do believe that it is important for employees to fulfill their notice period obligations when resigning.

Could you please provide guidance on how we should proceed in this situation?

Issuing a Relieving Letter Without Notice Period Completion

A relieving letter need not be given to anyone who has not completed the relieving formalities and the notice period. However, it seems that you have waived off his notice period; otherwise, how did you give him his full and final settlement? If you have deducted salary for the days not completed, then you are considering payment in lieu of the notice period. In that case, you might as well issue the relieving letter. You are free to mention both in the experience letter and relieving letter that he has not completed his notice period, etc.

Regards,