How Can I Get My Experience Letter After Breaking a Bond and Paying the Fee?

I was serving a bond with XYZ company. I broke the bond before completion. In addition, I also paid the bond amount to the company. Hence, no liability. Now the company gave me only a relieving letter and did not provide an experience letter. Nothing is specified in the contract that on breaking a contract, you will not receive experience letters, etc.

By following the bond and company policies, I did pay the amount. Now, I also want an experience letter. What should I do? Please share your valuable comments.

Thanks,
Yogesh5885.

Dear Yogesh, I am writing to request an experience certificate from the management. If necessary, I will meet with the Head of HR or the CEO personally to make this request. Thank you for your assistance in this matter.

Sincerely,

Thank you for your reply. This incident occurred in 2012 when I left that company. Subsequently, I joined an MNC that accepted all my documents, including the bond agreement. Currently, I am in the process of joining a third company where the concerned individual is requesting an experience letter from my first employer (where I was under bond).

During my notice period in 2012, I had numerous email exchanges and personal discussions. Throughout those interactions, it was repeatedly mentioned that issuing the experience letter was not company policy. However, there is no specific policy stating that a candidate who breaches the bond agreement should be denied an experience letter.

Please advise on how to proceed in this situation.

Thank you.

Does your relieving letter mention the last day of working and the designation that you were working in? Most of the time, HR will provide you with a relieving letter and an experience letter together as a combo. Therefore, please check for both. You may have a relieving letter and experience letter in the first place.

Regards,
Ashutosh Thakre

Thank you for your reply. The company claims that if you break the bond, they will not provide an experience letter. I have paid the money as per the bond conditions. My relieving letter only includes the end date and designation at the time of leaving the company. There is no start date mentioned.

I need to obtain my experience letter as my next employer is requesting it. My job offer is on hold because I don't have the experience letter. What should I do?

Regards,

You have no problem with the bond because you have already paid as per the bond. The nature of the bond is not clear in the query. If it is for imparting special training and the company spends for this, then and only then the bond will be valid. The Delhi High Court has held that once a Pepsi, not always a Pepsi. You are entitled to a Service Certificate. Therefore, immediately write to the management.

With regards,
S. Srinivasan

Dear Srinivas, Thank you for your reply. This incident occurred in 2012 when I left the company. I had a 3-month notice period during which I sent numerous escalation emails to HR, their managers, and their managers' managers. However, all of them refused to provide me with a letter citing company policy.

I carefully reviewed all the company policies and my contract terms. Nowhere did it mention that breaking the bond would result in the denial of an experience/service letter. The company seems to be adhering to some unwritten or mythical policies.

The uniform response from all company employees is unacceptable. Is there any alternative method through which I can obtain my letter? Despite my communications, they continue to respond in the same manner.

Thank you.

Dear friends, In the past, I used to wonder about certain general practices relating to the treatment of employees above the level of workman followed in the private sector employment. I would reassure myself that it was the rule of thumb and that employees affected by such practices eventually became thick-skinned and impervious over time, partly due to the lack of alternative employment in their preferred location and partly due to their lack of employability. However, there has been a significant change in the state of affairs over the past quarter of a century. Highly qualified youngsters, passionate about meeting challenges and achieving success, are flooding the realm of private employment. Meanwhile, the mediocre, driven by a sense of security and pseudo-pride, often prefer monotonous government employment. Managements now place more importance on the potential of a prospective job-seeker rather than their experience.

Such being the scenario, I am again wonder-struck by the peculiar episode of Yogesh. I think both his former employer and the prospective one refuse to move beyond their Victorian mindset of empty formalities. He left the company in 2012 after fulfilling one of the conditions of unilateral termination on his part, probably mentioned in the bond. In acceptance of the same by the former employer, he was duly relieved. Therefore, the question of breaking the bond does not arise for the management's covert refusal to issue the experience certificate.

Perhaps his resignation was due to his recruitment and subsequent appointment in the MNC. As such, there is no perceptible break in his career. So, I am at a loss to understand why the prospective employer insists upon the experience certificate from the penultimate employer. Had the company gone out of existence, what would he do? Better yet, Yogesh should explain the facts to the prospective employer to convince them and ask them to verify his tenure with that company. If not daring enough, he should issue a legal notice to the former employer for the experience certificate. At least, the reply will vouchsafe his experience with the former.

Thank you.

Apart from Mr. Umakanthan's viewpoint, I would recommend you present your appointment and relieving letters, which may be sufficient as your experience/service certificates.

I did the same when joining my second company, and it worked for me. However, I will now be moving on to a third company where I need to submit both my joining and relieving letters to prove my experience. The third company is now requesting a service letter in addition to the joining and relieving letters.

Since they are adamant about the certificate itself, tell them to come up with a solution where you can work on it. Apart from that, I am afraid the forum may not be of any help to you. As such, there is no rule, law, or act that states to give the service/experience certificate mandatorily to the best of my knowledge.

I don't think it's a good idea to work with a company that can't understand beyond what is written in their SOP documents. You are bound to have a problem with them next time you need any help.

If a company cannot understand that the relieving letter is equivalent to an experience letter, then nothing can be done about such a company or their HR department. Don't bother with them; look for another job. Hope you didn't resign already from your existing company.

Regarding the Experience Certificate referred to by Mr. Yogesh, which is being insisted upon by the third company he is going to join, my comments are as follows:

When any standard company selects a candidate for a job after verification of all essential documents and then offers an appointment, the final requirement will be the relieving letter from the immediate previous company. This is because the third company selected and appointed him after due verification of all certificates. Regarding the experience certificate, it generally means the experience or knowledge or nature of work he has done in the company, which is already tested in the interview. The experience certificate shows that an individual has knowledge of specific areas, rather than the service certificate, which is essential to verify the period he worked.

Most companies now provide a combined certificate at the time of relieving, namely, a relieving cum service certificate, which will state the period of working, his designation, department, salary, and when he is relieved.

Most HR heads accept the relieving cum service certificate, which is essential to verify all factors of service and for employee background verification, rather than the experience certificate. In some companies, the concerned HODs of the department like Production, Mechanical, Electrical, EDP, etc., issue experience certificates to specify what knowledge he has gained and what he did in the department, whereas the HR department only issues relieving and service certificates as the experience of the concerned employee is better known to his HODs only.

I hope HR can accept the relieving letter produced by Mr. Yogesh since he has already been selected and appointed based on all other certificates and his performance during the interview done by the third company.

I hope the seniors will accept, and the third company will take him for duty since he is already aggrieved from both sides.

Good luck.

Regards.

In case you do not have an experience letter, you can submit your bond letter copy (which would include your Date of Joining) along with your relieving letter that includes your last working day. Additionally, it would be beneficial to personally speak to your Employee Relations team and explain the current situation to them (show them the follow-up emails and replies). Hopefully, this approach will work.

Regards,
Sandeep Yadav

You should meet personally with the highest officer of the organization where you were working regarding these issues. If you fail to obtain an experience letter, you may consider seeking the services of a lawyer.

Regards,
Parmod Sharma

Come on! Get real! You can't send a legal notice or file a case in court asking the company to give you an experience letter for a job you left 3 years ago. There is no law stating they have to give an experience letter. They were required to give a relieving letter, which they have.