Absconding Employee Asking A Relieving Letter

Dear All,

I've recently joined a new company that has business across the nation, with different branches in various states. I received an incomplete handover from the previous HR, who was in a rush to leave the organization. My question pertains to an employee who resigned without providing the required 30-day notice. It was a sudden resignation where the employee walked into the office, sent a resignation email to HR, copied the reporting manager, and left in the middle of their shift. Now, the same employee is attempting to contact me to obtain a relieving letter. I do not have a clear understanding of the status of his resignation acceptance. When inquired with his reporting manager, I received negative feedback.

If the employee is insistent on obtaining the relieving letter, can I issue it with a negative notation? If so, please provide a format. How should I handle this situation? Your advice is greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

Dear Vinit,

In this case, you should not give him any letters as he has not served the notice period. You can still go into the depth of the matter by talking to your management further.

Good luck!!!

Regards,
Meghna

Hi Vinit,

Yes, you are within your rights to give him a relieving letter with "Adverse comments of subject employee having not served the notice period". Also, if you should have any dues/handover pending from him ensure that you have them completed before handing over the letter.

In such a scenario, I would try to balance my company's interest to set an example for others and also be fair with the employee, since the saying goes "No one is married to any company". Today we have this employee, tomorrow we might be in his place.

Ukmitra

Dear Vinit ji,

It is not important when you joined the employment. You are currently employed and assume the HR position.

You have not mentioned in your query when or on what date the concerned employee resigned. Immediate action is required regarding his resignation, which was submitted without proper notice.

The steps to be taken depend on various factors and circumstances. You may consider writing a letter to the employee, informing them that they were required to provide one month's notice before resigning, which was not done. Therefore, the management does not accept the resignation, and the employee should be called to return to work.

Alternatively, you can accept the resignation. In this case, you may choose to waive the notice pay or recover it.

Thank you.

Dear Vinit ji,

You have no other option but to issue him a relieving letter and make his F&F settlement. You can recover his notice pay. If recovery is not possible, you can make a demand for it. This will have a deterrent effect on others.

Even if you decide to waive the notice pay, please do not do so easily. Ensure that others do not claim precedence. The decisions you have to make should be based on various circumstances.

In this case, I have a different opinion. What is a relieving letter? The employee in question came to the workplace, sent a resignation letter, and left. Was he "relieved" of his duties and did he hand over/relinquish his responsibilities? Almost six months have elapsed since the incident took place! How can a relieving letter be issued today? And what purpose would it serve? Unfortunately, today most of the standard established HR practices are neither being studied nor followed. There is no question of any relieving letter in this case. Warm regards.

Agreeing with Raj ji, that's exactly my point as well.

A relieving letter is given to an employee who has resigned dutifully. We do understand that sometimes a person has to leave in a rush, but was the matter discussed? There seems to be no record of it. Secondly, the person is seeking a relieving letter post 6 months. Why? Is he switching jobs or is there any other reason. You asked the line/reporting manager who happened to give you negative feedback on this. So perhaps the matter that he has resigned has not been escalated, or he was in such a hurry that he didn't even take care if his resignation was handed over to the proper person or if it was delivered. The person can argue he mailed it, but did he ensure if it reached the concerned person? Was that not his duty to ensure that? About you saying that this should have been done by the previous HR, well, how can one issue a relieving letter to someone who submits a resignation and doesn't even wait to get it accepted by the firm or to discuss the concerns? If the person calls you, you should say that there is no record found for the resignation letter being processed. Tell him that just by submitting the resignation letter does not initiate the whole process, and there is a series of steps to be followed for proper resignation and relieving to be done. Tell him that he was expected to serve the notice period so that he can hand over the details of his work to his replacement, but due to his abrupt resignation and subsequent absence, no proper handover happened. In this case, you are not allowed to issue a relieving letter. In contrast, I believe you can issue an experience certificate and mention on it: NAME served YEARS with COMPANY as DESIGNATION. He happened to have left us very abruptly on LAST_WORKING_DATE, and this experience certificate is being issued at his request. Some modifications, as required by the line manager, can be made.

Hi Vinit,

What Raj had advised should have solved your query. A relieving letter is given to state how and when an employee is relieved from an organization. In your case, the employee had just informed his fellow colleagues that he/she is no longer interested in working for your organization and has abandoned his/her services. This situation concludes the episode by terminating his/her employment from the organization. In such a case, the employee will not be entitled to any compensation for the loss of services or an employment letter. It is not practical to ask the same person to serve the notice period or to buy out the same now. Just inform him/her that he/she will not be entitled to any employment letter due to their unprofessional act.

Hello Vinit,

Like Raj Kumar mentioned, this guy can't be given the Relieving Letter for the simple reason that he didn't follow any of the standard steps to deserve getting it.

Based on your postings, looks like you seem to 'feel' that you will be doing injustice to this guy by not giving the Relieving Letter—since you suggested IF you can give it with adverse remarks. However, given the state of technology today, can you be absolutely sure that he WON'T make changes to suit his end & use such a fake Letter? Frankly, I have my doubts.

I think this is a situation when 'thinking thru the head' is more appropriate than 'thinking thru the heart'.

You haven't mentioned his tenure in your company—how long did he work? That could give you some lead to WHY he is asking for it NOW.

This aspect ought to be IMPORTANT to you to ensure he doesn't MISUSE what you intend giving in good faith/goodwill. And, frankly, this would apply to even giving him an Experience Letter—as suggested by Ankita Shah.

Even in the Worst-case-scenario of him adopting/threatening a legal stance, you have the records in your favor [since you say yours is a big company with Pan-India presence, I presume you have Standard Procedures for Relieving all laid out].

All the Best.

Rgds,

TS