Struggling to Get a Relieving Letter After Maternity Leave: How Can I Resolve This HR Issue?

Hi all, I would expect a genuine answer from HR professionals, as I am not aware of the exact rules in my case.

Background of My Employment Situation

I worked in an MNC two years ago. I had to leave the company due to critical maternity issues. When this decision was made, I directly approached my then management, informed them of my situation, but they insisted I serve the notice period, which was not possible with my newborn child. I explained this, submitted all my belongings to the company, and left without serving the notice. Shortly after, I received a letter from HR stating that I was absconding. I immediately called the HR person mentioned in the letter, explained my situation, and was informed it was a formality and to discuss with my manager. Following this instruction, I sent an email from my personal ID stating my resignation, but it was not accepted by management. Due to the demands of my new life, time went on.

Current Situation and Request for Advice

A year later, I settled all my dues with the company, including compensation for not serving the notice period. Now, I approached HR to request a relieving letter as my family needs my support, especially since I have moved to another state post-maternity. However, they refused, citing my case as absconding and are unwilling to issue the letter despite me fulfilling all obligations at the time of leaving and even offering a medical certificate. I pleaded with them to consider my situation as genuine, but nobody in my previous company is assisting me. Although management now has no objection to issuing the letter, HR is not cooperative. I am struggling to secure a new job as potential employers may require this letter. Even if they do issue one, it may only be a job abandonment letter, which may not be beneficial. I seek your advice on this matter. Thank you in advance.

Regards

Request for Experience Certificate

Please issue a letter to them requesting the experience certificate. State every detail about the clearance process and the financial settlement. Thank them for the support from your ex-reporting leaders and the HR Team. Mention how critical your condition was, which is why you had to leave the job abruptly. Keep it courteous.

State a date within which they need to revert. If there is no response from them, it remains a declaration from your side. Submit this as an exit document while applying for the next job.

Thanks for your super-fast response. As suggested, I have already sent a similar kind of email to the head of HR, India, for which there hasn't been any response. Are you saying that this email can be submitted in lieu of the relieving letter? Will this email confirmation be accepted by MNC companies? I understand that this is a difficult question to answer; however, I do not want the MNCs to reject me at the end because of this. Please suggest further ideas on obtaining the relieving letter or joining a new concern with my current status.

Thanks again for your speedy response.

From the brief description, it is not clear whether you had applied for leave on medical grounds when you had maternity-related problems. Also, it is not clear whether you were in the advanced stage of pregnancy, as covered under the Act.

Understanding the Maternity Benefit Act 1961

The Maternity Benefit Act 1961 provides protection to women employees. Section 12 of the Act stipulates that a woman employee cannot be dismissed or discharged on account of her absence from duty caused by pregnancy. Similarly, Section 10 of the Act states that for illness arising from pregnancy, one month of leave is to be provided.

Steps to Take

I would suggest you check these provisions and see their applicability in your case. As suggested by (Cite Contribution), while giving a comprehensive account of your case, you can point out the above legal provisions too and seek a solution to the issues you have raised.

Regards,
KK

Payment Verification for Notice Period Dues

It is not known how you have paid the dues for not serving the notice period. If it was made by cash, was there any receipt for the same? If by cheque, please get confirmation from your bank passbook entry whether the cheque payment has been debited to the employer's account. In such a case, please mention these details in your letter to the company.

Communication Method

It is suggested that any communication should always be done through Registered Post with Acknowledgement Due, which is legally binding on the person who has received the letter in the company. Even if there was any phone call or email, it should be followed up by a confirmatory letter.

Acknowledgment of Payment

In this case, it is suggested that if there was any acknowledgment for the receipt of payment from the company, enclose the same along with your letter by RPAD.

Regards,
M. Venkatraghavan

Acknowledgment and Next Steps

Mr. Venkat,

Thanks for looking into my subject. With reference to your reply, I have proof of acknowledgment via email for clearing the dues with the company. I have cited the same in my email to the Head of HR, but still no response even after a follow-up email. Since this is a Global MNC, can I approach the superiors of India HR with a humane request? My company is headquartered in the US. I very badly need the relieving letter; please suggest some ideas.

Thanks,
Sun

Mr. Knair,

I applied for maternity leave for the next 5 months and went for my delivery (9th month). At the time the leave expired, I informed the manager about my situation and left the job. My concern is that when I informed everything to my reporting manager, they still considered me as absconded. Only the formal exit has not happened, but all other submissions I finished. During the exit, my manager closed the case by tagging it under absconding because he needed to close.

Regards,

I have gone through your mail and find that instead of approaching the Senior Members now for a solution, if you could have approached them at that point in time, things would not have become complicated. You had a wrong start for which you are responsible. It seems that when you approached the management with your problem, you were advised to serve a notice period, which you could have done easily. It was very unfortunate that after serving the notice period, they would have asked you to either serve the company for the notice period or deposit the amount calculated for the notice period, which you could have done at that time, as you have done now. This exercise would have saved you from the agony you are undergoing now.

Since you left without following the norms of your appointment letter or the standing orders of the company, they have rightly declared you an absconder in terms of their standing orders. Since you claimed that you sent your resignation from your personal ID and deposited the notice period amount, the management should have closed the matter and issued you the clearance certificate as well as the experience certificate. However, it seems the management holds a grudge against you for not following the company's norms and leaving abruptly.

Since you did not apply for maternity leave, even though you claimed to have been suffering from critical maternity issues, you cannot take shelter under Section 12 of the Maternity Benefit Act 1961 as mentioned by KK.

You have not mentioned anything about your position or rank in the company, so I am unable to suggest whether you should approach the appropriate Labour Authorities. Please check this or send a lawyer's notice detailing all the sequences of your actions, which may bring some results. Another way is to explain the entire story to your new management, taking them into confidence, and inform them not to insist on the relieving or experience letter. You have to assure them that you will not repeat the mistakes you made in the previous company.

Regards,
BS Kalsi
Member since Aug 2011

Dear Kalsi,

Thank you for looking into my case. A few points which I may have missed to inform:

* Firstly, I had applied for my maternity leave with the company at the right time. Due to complications in my child's birth, I was not in a position to rejoin the company. Hence, I had requested immediate relieving. This was denied by the company. I was in a desperate situation to take care of my son, so I didn't bother about the letter at that time.

* I worked as a senior process associate in the BPO sector, part of the supply chain division.

Should I seek a legal approach or take the matter to the senior officials? Your guidance and support are highly appreciated.

Regards,
Sun

I would suggest that you make a comprehensive reference citing the full facts to the Indian BPO with a copy to its principals, mentioning that the maternity benefits have been denied to you and there is a clear-cut violation of the provisions of the Act. Since you had applied for maternity leave, there cannot be any presumption that you have absconded. If there is no satisfying response, then you can approach the labor authorities. Violation of the provisions of the Maternity Benefits Act is very serious, and you would be able to get some relief. After all, you are asking only for a proper experience cum relieving order.

Regards,
KK

Based on what you mentioned/clarified, I think you have a case to ESCALATE the issue with your US Office. Do you know the Mail ID of the USA HR Head of the MNC [to whom the Indian HR Head reports]? If not, then I suggest getting it through your contacts—suggest DON'T TOUCH THE LOCAL HR GUYS EVEN WITH A BARGEPOLE for now.

Summarize Your Case

Summarize the complete details—taking care to include ALL the salient points of your case and AT THE SAME TIME ensuring that it doesn't look like a story—meaning stick to 'brevity'. If it's a long mail, then it may not even be read by the recipient. Even the Subject ought to be something that draws his/her attention ASAP [maybe 'requesting your intervention' OR 'Is this fair', etc., etc.]. Hope you get the point.

Also, please ensure you attach evidence of whatever statements you mention in the mail. For example, if you mention 'I informed this to so & so', then attach the relevant e-mail using clear numbering/coding [Attachment-1...and so on]. The idea is to ensure that the recipient doesn't need to spend too much time on your case—after all, you have to bear in mind that they WOULD be busy souls.

In case you don't have evidence for anything you may wish to include, desist from including that point, unless it's VERY CRUCIAL.

Use Positive Language

Another thing—DON'T make any accusations OR EVEN use the slightest negative-sounding words. Use words that convey 'being hurt by this treatment', 'didn't expect this from such a high-standing company', etc. Hope you get the point.

Avoid Involving Local HR

The reason why I suggested NOT to inform or involve the Indian HR guys in this step is: as it is, you don't see anything coming from them and there COULD be a chance that they MAY sabotage your case—just considering the Worst-case-scenario for now. Even if you keep them in the loop, I am not sure they would support you—IF they were so considerate, you wouldn't be posting this situation here in the first place. Whatever they need to do from now on—let it come from their US office.

Modus Operandi

The reason why I am suggesting this Modus Operandi is that I have tried it earlier [for a different situation] and it works—depends on how you present the case. The way foreigners treat and take such issues is quite different from us Indians—however much it hurts us [many of us Indians have this famous 'chalta hai' attitude imbibed I guess].

All the Best.

Regards,
TS

Thanks for the suggestion. Moreover, I heard this situation is because, for the past few months, some politics have been happening between the operations team and the HR team. So that's playing a role in my life.

I support Sateesh in this aspect. Silently escalate the issue to the Head HR in the US and other operational heads. As such, you were on maternity leave for almost six months. A person is usually asked to serve the notice period only to find a suitable replacement for him/her and enable a smooth transfer of job responsibilities. In your case, you were already off the job for a period much longer than the notice period, and hence there is no logic in asking you to serve it. Moreover, you have compensated the company by cash in lieu of serving notice.

Take a day or two to gather all the communication and other evidence you have. Compile a good representation with all the supporting facts and figures and send it to the HR and operations head. When the query is received parawise at this end from the US, we can see these jokers dancing.

If the heads in the US don't take action within a fortnight, send them a note stating that you are seeking legal redressal in the appropriate court of law. This will heat up their seats, and things will fall into line.

When you have to hit, hit the head; the whole body shudders. Escalate the issue two or three levels higher. I have done it several times, and it has always worked.

Hi all, thanks to all for your suggestions. As per your suggestions, I worked out, sent mail to the Heads in India of my previous organization, and got my relieving letter. I also joined a new company this month. It's really a good site that helped me at the right time. Just to share my happiness, I came back here. Thanks once again to all who gave me good suggestions.