Navigating Job Termination: How Can My Friend Handle Missing Service Letters?

Dear Experienced Members,

I am posting this question based on an incident I recently heard from an ex-colleague. I was told that the person was asked to leave by his organization due to a mistake, which went against him. It seems he sent welcome emails to new hire candidates from his official email ID on behalf of the company. Officially, he was not authorized to do so as he was not part of the recruitment team, but he went ahead and did it as a favor to one of his friends who was working in a placement firm. He was assured that they were all confirmed candidates who were hired in a campus recruitment drive conducted by his own company but located in a different city. It seems he did that favor because his friend had worked earlier with him in his previous organization. Little did he know that his action would land him in trouble.

After many months, those candidates started following up because they had not received their joining dates. Ultimately, one of them escalated the matter, which came under the management's radar. Finally, disciplinary action was conducted against him, and he was issued a Termination Letter.

I know this was an unfortunate event that should not have happened. I have known my friend for a long time now, and he has always been an exceeding performer in his professional career. This one wrong move caused a big blow. After discussing the matter, I found out that he fell prey to the fraud that his ex-colleague led him to do. He did not know that it would land him in such a big problem. He is facing difficulties in getting a new job now. He has spent almost 8 years in the consulting services domain in well-known MNCs. So, I have listed down a couple of questions to seek guidance from all respected seniors.

Questions for Guidance

1. Since he was issued a Termination Letter, he was not given a Relieving Letter or Service Letter. It seems there was just one line in his Termination Letter stating that he worked from a certain date. The letter details the entire episode, so furnishing that to potential employers is asking for trouble. What should he do?

2. Even if an employee is being terminated, legally, isn't he supposed to get a separate service/relieving letter that states that he worked for those many months or years? He worked for 1 year and 3 months with the company.

I would appreciate some guidance from a senior HR member on this forum who could be of help.

Thank you.

A relieving letter is issued to a person to re-emphasize the fact that the person is no longer associated with the company and that the relationship has been mutually revoked for whatever reasons. As far as my knowledge goes, there is no need for giving a relieving letter separately.

Now, to be clearer, although it seems that the person was just trying to help his friend and didn't realize that he would be liable for it in the future, he was punished out of his innocence or his empathy to help. But if you look at it from the company's and the employee's point of view:

- The employees were mailed that they were selected for the said position. After receiving this mail, anyone would stop searching for a job further.
- If the people were working somewhere, they must have prepared for relieving and might have already submitted their papers, and hence are now jobless.
- They had been following up with the company seeking their joining dates, and the authorities of the company were not aware of this situation.

Obviously, the company cannot say that it was a fault of its employee and just apologize. They have incurred some loss. Financial losses might be recovered in some time, but they also lost their goodwill in front of those candidates. Those 4-5 candidates would share this episode that the company ditched them and said they were selected and then never gave joining dates to all their friends and family, who in turn would spread it further, and this will spread like wildfire.

It is not that the company is not right in terminating the employee. Sometimes it is unfortunate that we learn lessons in a tough and hard manner. Yet, let's wait for some advice from seniors. Perhaps they can take it in a different way and can help out. I am unable to see any hope in this.