Feeling Stuck Without a Relieving Letter: How to Navigate Job Changes and Employer Concerns?

I am currently working in a Big 4 firm for just a year after completing my master's degree.

Three years ago, I left a company abruptly due to reasons related to COVID-19. I acknowledge that it was not the right thing to do. My tenure there was only 14 days, during which I did not receive any salary. However, they did open a PF account for me. I have not faced any issues in my current employment as I did not include that brief experience on my CV or anywhere else.

I have tried reaching out to my previous employer, but they have refused to provide a relieving letter despite offering to pay in lieu. They are unwilling to cooperate.

I am concerned about potential challenges that companies like TCS may pose due to the absence of a relieving letter from one of my previous employers as I am planning to change jobs within a year.

Which multinational corporations are understanding of such situations if the candidate can provide alternative documentation?

What steps should I take? Has anyone else been in a similar situation before? I feel very helpless and anxious about my career prospects.

Is my career doomed?

Challenges with Relieving Orders and Background Verification

A lot of employees face situations like this. Without foreseeing the future, they just abandon the job. When they find that the UAN created is linked to their Aadhaar and there is no way to hide the UAN, they approach the company with a request to issue a relieving order. The employer then retaliates or turns hostile.

Legally, there is no issue if you do not furnish a relieving order from a company where you did not have reasonable service. You can skip the services you don't want to show. The reasons for not showing the service may be numerous—it may be the role, which was different from what you expected before joining, or it may be the culture of the organization, which you did not like, and so on. Once you reveal it, the matter could be solved. However, when a background verification process is outsourced, the agency that conducts it takes it very seriously (as if it is their duty to act as detectives!) and records these in their reports. The company will then be liable to conduct an inquiry into these gaps and then make a decision about the future of the candidate. As long as your service is inevitable and your joining cannot be postponed, you are safe. But in the case of elastic demand, the company will hold it for months until they get a convincing reply. This is the fact.