How to Handle Employees Refusing to Submit Required Documents After Years of Employment?

Requesting Employee Documents After Several Years

Kindly advise in case we have some employees who have been working with us for 4 and 5 years but have not submitted certificates from their previous employers. Now, management wants us to request that they provide all documents mentioned in the CV at the time of joining, which the employees are refusing to give by providing lame excuses or potentially fake documents.

Compelling Employees to Provide Documents

Could you please advise if we can compel them to provide the documents now? If so, how can we do so and what actions can be taken against them if they fail to provide the required documents, within the limits permissible under the law?

Thanks and Regards,
C.M. Mohla

Now you don't have the authority to force them for management's mistake.

Questions Regarding Administration and Documentation

1. Why weren't joining formalities handled properly?
2. If there are mistakes in administration, how can you force them after 5 years? Is that the right approach?
3. Asking for a previous company experience letter after 4 years reflects poorly on your administration.

Thank you.
Regards.

I admit it was a fault on the part of the organization, but what happened is history and we can't change it. However, could there be anything that the company can do? That was my question. Even though this is history, can't we seek the document which is mentioned in their C.V.?

Thanks and Regards,
C.M. Mohla

Aditya has a valid point. But you haven't mentioned the reason why the company needs or is insisting on the documents now. What are the numbers involved when you say "some employees who are working with us for 4 & 5 years"?

Going by the same logic you mentioned, "but what happened is history & we can't change it," just forget about the earlier employees and begin to implement the new rules from now on—unless there are very strong reasons for asking for the documents. Ask the earlier employees for the documents, but suggest not to insist.

All the best.

Regards,
TS

Joining documents need to be completed at the time of joining itself. As you have admitted, it was not done at that time due to certain circumstances. However, logically thinking, asking for such documents 4-5 years later is not relevant, as many staff members may not have preserved them.

Therefore, you may consider taking their basic documents such as ID proof, address proof, etc., for security purposes and start collecting all the necessary documents for new joiners at the earliest.

Thank you.

Regards,

Verification of Employee Credentials

We have recently come to know from some internal sources that some employees' experiences were fake. However, due to the reference policy, the earlier HR team assumed that the details on the CVs would be correct. Hence, they didn't make an effort to check or ask for all the documents. But now, the management has asked us to verify all the credentials.

Thanks & Regards,
C.M. Mohla

You are too late in collecting the documents from the employees who have been working for 4 years. You must collect all the required documents before joining, or you should have put conditions that their appointment will be subject to the production of the previous employers' relieving certificate or experience certificate. Now, you can issue them a letter as required by the management to submit the required documents. Failing to do so, the matter will be dealt with in a domestic enquiry.

If they fail to submit the documents within a reasonable time, you should institute a domestic enquiry and act upon the receipt of the enquiry findings from the enquiry officer.

I hope the matter is now clear.

Regards,
Adoni Suguresh
Sr. Executive (Personnel, Administration & Industrial Relations) Retired
Labour Laws Consultant

As other members have rightly advised, it is too late, but that does not mean that you can't ask for it. Kindly send a letter asking them to submit the certificates in a mild way. Failure to do so will result in a loss of some percentage/points for the increment or a delay in the increment.