Friend wants to quit but his boss won't give experience letter: Suggestions needed

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My friend has been working for a very small firm for the past 10 months. The first 4 months he worked as a trainee without pay and then was given a stipend of Rs 5k per month.

Now he's got a job in another company which is giving him a better salary. He wants to leave but the company wants papers from old company. Offer letter, experience letter etc.

My friend spoke with his boss and he assured my friend that all documents will be given to him within a month. He has to join on 21st June.

For the past 2-3 days, his boss is saying that my friend has betrayed him and they have a policy in which people have to work minimum for a year and loads of other shit which was never mentioned nor did my friend sign any documents.

The new company is quite insistent on getting the experience documents and sent a mail to the old company HR asking basic questions. Basically for verification. His boss tracked down the e-mail and said that he won't be able to give the verification before 21st. We all know what he's trying to do.

Another option given to him is that since he has not worked for the entire year, he can pay Rs 35,000 to the old company since he is breaking the (non-existent :|) bond and leaving.

Now, what can be done in such a case? Barely 10 days left for him to report at his new job. :(

His old firm is basically run by a guy and his nephew. Very small in size.
 
Re: Friend wants to quit but his boss won't give experience letter: Suggestions neede

Just break the bond and leave - bonded labour is an offense and if taken up as a case by the company, they'd lose it for sure. We have had some similar situations in our company. Is an experience certificate a must? Wont payslips from the company do?
 
Re: Friend wants to quit but his boss won't give experience letter: Suggestions neede

Like I said, there is no bond at all!!! The ass^%% of a boss is making it up right now just to extract money from him and make him miserable. My friend DID NOT sign any documents of this nature. I'll tell my friend to ask the new HR regarding the payslips.

More suggestions please.
 
Re: Friend wants to quit but his boss won't give experience letter: Suggestions neede

No company can hold your Experience or Relieving letter if you are properly resigning i.e. Serving the notice period given in your Appointment letter or by paying off the notice period. Also your friend can approach an Advocate and can send a legal notice to the company in case if he has served or payed his notice period and still not getting his letters. Also you can seek advice at CITEHR.
 
Re: Friend wants to quit but his boss won't give experience letter: Suggestions neede

1. Your friend can try talking with the HR of the new company, explain the situation and get more time to submit the papers. One of my colleagues had the same problem some years back. He was earlier working at a company which was exploiting him in an insane manner (He was getting paid 3k for doing the work of 15 people). When he got offer in my company, the his boss argued with him and refused to issue the documents saying he would ruin his career if he left the company. He then simply talked with our HR about his predicament and the company even agreed to take him without the requite papers from his previous company. Of course, our India based IT biggies like Infy, TCS, Wipro etc act pretty stupid and stubborn in such situations.

2. If your friend has not signed any bond stating all the terms clearly, then he is not obligated to pay anything. It is illegal to not issue the requisite papers when the person wishes to resign. So your friend can try threatening him that he will take the company to court.

3. Pay the amount with evidence of the same, get the experience letter than then lodge a case that he took a bribe for issuing experience letter.
 
Re: Friend wants to quit but his boss won't give experience letter: Suggestions neede

@OP:
Your friend would have an offer letter right, when he was transitioned from trainee to FTE..? Also pay-slips should be with him too,or some taxation documents, showing he received payment from the departing organization. If your friend takes these, and speaks genuinely to the new company HR, they should agree.

Also if the existent boss has said "I will not give verification / release / FnF documents before the 21st" (new joining date), no issue. Take a commitment from him -- how many days/weeks/months after the 21sth he will provide these papers. Tell this new date in the new company. Similar issue happened with me, and I submitted my FnF documents ~90 days after joining, cause my previous company refused to give them. I just made it clear at the new company. Payslips, initial offer letter help.
 
Re: Friend wants to quit but his boss won't give experience letter: Suggestions neede

Even if one has signed the bond;one sided bonds are not legal in India.

Don't reach an advocate straightly, keep this as last resort.

Talk to HR and try to settle it, ask him to talk to his new company HR to adjust, explaining them the situation. My friend did this and all the company wants (a big product based) was a declaration stating that they are not responsible if your old company sues you and it is your decision.
 
Re: Friend wants to quit but his boss won't give experience letter: Suggestions neede

This is the case of almost every company my dear friend, ask your friend to speak to the company about this case frankly, all in good time.
 
Re: Friend wants to quit but his boss won't give experience letter: Suggestions neede

Tell your friend to use papers like his original offer letter / pay slip / or atleast bank statements.

And he can file case for forced labour with labour dept. and he can give that report to the new company asking for a extension.

Most companies gives extension. talking abt medium to big companies.
 
Re: Friend wants to quit but his boss won't give experience letter: Suggestions neede

@All : Thank you for your valuable advice.

I also advised him to try to get the papers as amicably as possible since he has very less time left. I wish courts in India were as efficient as outside where even the threat of suing gets everything done. That is definitely the last resort.

Getting an engineer to work without pay as a "trainee" is as bad enough. Resorting to dirty tactics to get money is really pathetic. I hope he gets out of this mess soon. He is a very hard-working and good-natured guy. Gets along with everyone. He has been working nearly 12 hour shifts since the time he joined. Feeling really bad for him. :(
 
Re: Friend wants to quit but his boss won't give experience letter: Suggestions neede

First, if he does go to court his career is all but over. These are businesses and they don't want troublemakers. It's very easy to spook prospective employers if you take your current (or past) one to court unless it's a sexual harrasment issue - and don't think they won't come to know about it, two court dates mean two days of missed work. It's fine to think of all of this when you're in your twenties, but business heads also have responsibilities. You just can't hire people who are pushing cases against employers in courts - unless the employee is a rockstar at their work, and even then it's dicey.

If I was recruiting and I had a situation like this, honesty would really help, as would a referral. If I could talk to another person who had shared the same fate, it would corroborate your friend's version. It is quite possible that in situations like this there is blame on both sides (truant employees do not get experience letters or a recommendation from me, for example), and prima facie though this is not the case here it is very difficult to trust someone without some kind of surety that the person I'm hiring is genuine. Last thing I want is someone with zero recommendation creating trouble, and since I only have one story I would need some kind of backup. This is why a company needs a clean chit from your previous employer. If the employer is creating trouble, then he needs to simply tell the new company the truth. Preferably, bypassing HR and going straight to the department head, who will be the real boss and the person who will take the decision. I know that the IT industry mostly treats its people as headcount, but he may get lucky. And if he doesn't, the new company is probably not worth it anyway - if they can't trust him to speak the truth, they can't trust him with any business.
 
Re: Friend wants to quit but his boss won't give experience letter: Suggestions neede

^ Thanks a lot for the informative post Sir. Thankfully, you stumbled on this thread. I will convey the same (word by word) to my friend. He recently discovered that his boss has asked another ex-employee to pay 80,000 bucks if he wants his experience papers. And that guy has been working for around 1.5 years.

Sadly enough, my friend did not get any form of document which proves that he worked for the company. Like payslips, job offer letter etc. I already reprimanded him for the same but he is a bit naive. This naivety of his has made his employers take advantage of him. But, I'm sure about one thing. This kind of response from his employers is totally unwarranted. He never created any trouble, rather he worked overtime and even came on Sundays whenever they required him to. Which was almost week after week.

I guess, like you said, the best way is to try to convince his new employers of his trouble. And the thing is that he finished engineering last year. So, he is more or less a fresher. The new company's HR said that if he had informed her of the problems he was facing, she could have hired him as a fresher in the first place.

Let's see what happens.
 
Re: Friend wants to quit but his boss won't give experience letter: Suggestions neede

He should retract and join as a fresher, if at all that is possible. It is a year down the drain, but starting from a clean slate can often be much better than starting with so much baggage. And it does not matter if you have one year of experience or ten, things can go wrong at any point in time. Starting over gives you a chance to redeem your mistakes (in this case, joining a company and hanging on for so long without proper documentation) and can give you a completely new perspective :)

Good Luck to you both.
 
Re: Friend wants to quit but his boss won't give experience letter: Suggestions neede

^^ I second that. Since he has not even completed a year, it would be in his best interests to take up the new job as a fresher if he is being provided that option. If he needs to get VISA or something later, he would not have to face headaches.
 
Re: Friend wants to quit but his boss won't give experience letter: Suggestions neede

the boss is just holding onto the cheap labour.

ask your friend to demand a pay raise (a pay raise is given at 6months intervals generally)

if pay raise is not as much as what he is being offered at new job then i dont see a reason why he shall stay at old job.

if boss as not mentioned the policies before your friend joint the job then your friend can also make up personal policies like he doesn't work for under that much salary for more than 6months etc.

some times these employer try to take uninformed employees for a ride.

ask your friend not to get frightened and show some confidence when he speaks so that the boss wont try to play hardball.

if possible, try to consult HR of the new employer as Lord Nemesis suggested .
 
Re: Friend wants to quit but his boss won't give experience letter: Suggestions neede

Don't go to court as of now... as most of the ppl have suggested keep it as the very very last resort. Try to pataofy ppl from HR and get the required papers out. This is what most of us ppl do in suck sticky situations :)
 
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