Stuck Without an Experience Letter: How Can I Get My Former Employer to Respond?

Hi,

I left my company in August 2014. Almost 3 years have passed, and the management has not provided me with an experience letter. They have only given me a letter stating my old designation as Officer-HR at the time of my departure. Despite legally requesting it through a lawyer, they have not responded. Additionally, I was given a promotion at the time of leaving. What should I do? Please advise.

Thanks,
Varun Raj

Don't you have the promotion letter? Has your lawyer not attached the promotion letter and sent the notice? Tell your lawyer to issue a second notice to the CEO of the company with a cc to the signatory. That should normally resolve the issue. Since you have initiated action through a lawyer, please go by his advice. I am sure he will advise you to file a case to get an order to implement what is in your appointment letter if the notice to the CEO fails to get a response.

Are you sure you have given us the complete description and all details of the issue? Why did the company give a relieving letter in the old designation? How many days had passed since your promotion when you resigned? Do you have any proof that you were given a promotion? Getting a letter changed through legal threat will not really solve anything. If anyone does a background check, the company will tell them the letter is fake. You are not even going to know why you were suddenly thrown out.

Thank you, Saswata Banerjee and the other person, for your reply and guidance. I really appreciate it.

I resigned from the company because it was under crisis/lockout. They wanted me to continue working there as the Executive Director to reconcile with the employees, since I had developed a good rapport with them. I don't have any proof that they had given me a promotion. Orally, at the time of resigning, the management informed me about my new position and said it would be given in a letter ASAP. Since the company was under crisis, we did not serve the notice period. However, I have not received any letter yet.

Seeking Alternatives to Legal Threats

If changing the letter through a legal threat is not a good idea, what else can I do? Please help me.

Oral promises are not valid in the absence of a written letter. By involving a lawyer, you have positioned yourself in a situation where obtaining this letter may be difficult due to lack of evidence. Therefore, it may be best to come to terms with the facts and reality.

Promotion and Experience Letter Issue

The employer wanted to retain you and hence offered you a promotion, provided you continued working. However, you left the company abruptly without serving the notice period as per the clause you mentioned. Now, you are claiming an experience letter with the designation of the promotion for which you neither adhered to the terms nor worked a single day. If you believe that sending a letter through a lawyer or issuing a legal threat will help, I am sorry to say that it may create a legal tangle, which will not benefit you in the long run.

Dear Mr. Varunraj, you have accepted the relieving letter with your designation, i.e., Officer-HR. Please adhere to that. I have not come across any promotion given orally. Even if it was given orally, it was only an offer to retain your service. You did not continue your service. When you did not keep your word, how can you expect the employer to honor the offer in writing? Now, you are trying to get a written document for an oral offer/promise after a lapse of 3 years, that too through a lawyer. Is your lawyer privy to this oral promise/offer? If he were experienced, he would have given you proper advice to desist from such actions. Please stop such actions immediately; you are inviting unnecessary trouble.