Facing Issues with Experience and Relieving Letters After Resignation: What Are My Options?

I worked in a company for 13 months. My salary was 8 pm, with a basic of 5000. At the time of joining, they offered me a fixed CTC of 0.96. After 6 months, they implemented PF deduction. When I denied, they told me to take the salary in cash. I agreed to that. But at that time, they didn't tell me that I would not get any documents. From the next month onwards, they did not issue me salary slips. When I asked them for the same, they told me that I would not get any and somehow convinced me. But even at that time, they did not tell me that I would not get any documents.

When I resigned due to a medical issue after one year, I served proper notice. But at the time of relieving, they handed over to me only an experience letter of one month and a relieving letter of only 6 months. On asking, they are now saying you were an off-roll employee, so you will not get a relieving and experience letter of one month. What can I do? I have a copy of the resignation mail which I served in the last month. Please suggest me. Can I go for some legal action?

Regards

Legal Implications of PF Deduction and Employment Status

You cannot decide whether PF is to be deducted or not. Your company has to abide by the law. Since you asked the company not to deduct your PF, and somehow the company agreed by putting you off the roll, during that period, your salary was paid in cash. The company most probably did not show you as an employee to the PF authority, which is also a violation of the law.

Surely, you can take legal action against the company, and you have a good case too. But are you ready to spend time and money (legal fees) for an experience letter?

Regards

My company has not informed me in writing or via email that they are making me an off-role employee. I have also not signed any documents related to this. It's a concern for my career as I have worked there with full loyalty. When they started deducting PF, they told me it was mandatory for all. I refused and resigned on the same day. However, they called me and said, "We do not want an employee like you to leave our organization." I told them, "Sir, I cannot survive on such little money." At that time, they offered to pay my salary in cash but did not mention anything about being off-role. If they had told me, why would I have worked there for more than six months? They are only giving me a 6-month experience certificate, while I have worked there for 1 year. This will affect my career growth. That is why I need a proper relieving and experience letter from this company.

Legal Implications of Cash Salary Payments

Most probably, the company is not going to recognize you as their employee for the period during which you were paid in cash. If it is established that you worked for the company for a certain period but they did not deduct PF as per the Act, the company could face legal trouble with the PF authorities. Hence, they may try not to provide you with any documents related to that period.

Your Legal Advantage

Legally speaking, you have an advantage in this situation since it is the company's duty to comply with statutory requirements like ESI and PF. If you have evidence such as an attendance register, salary register, internal memo, or letter of authority for that period, you can prove your employment.

Steps to Take

You may send a letter via speed or registered post to the company stating that you worked from [dates] and, since you have separated, you require a relieving and experience certificate.

Regards

Will gratuity be applicable after 4.5 years? And is gratuity calculated based only on the basic salary?

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In the corrected version, I have fixed the spelling and grammar errors in the user's input and organized the text into separate paragraphs for better readability.

Understanding the Consequences of Receiving Salary in Cash

You have decided to evade the law by taking your salary in cash and avoiding all taxes and statutory dues. Consequently, the company is not recognizing you as an employee. This means they will not provide you with an experience certificate or any other documentation to prove your employment during the period you received cash payments.

Claiming now that you were unaware of this arrangement is unwise. It should have been clear that the company would not officially acknowledge you as an employee if you were not being paid through official channels. Taking any action against the company will likely be futile unless there is a significant oversight in their documentation, which is unlikely. You will need to find a way to explain this situation to your new employer, but this is something you should have considered before engaging in an illegal activity.

Regards