Relieving Letter - New Employer

Dear All,
Can Anyone explain me in detail about relieving Letter.I have Following Questions
1) Does Issuing Relieving letter to employee has Any specific Time Limit ? If so what is the maximum time limit an employer can take to issue ? My ex - employees Says that their New employer is asking Relieving Letter within 21 days from the day they relieved from my company.
Regards,
Vinodkumar.C

Hello Vinodkumar,

Ideally, the relieving letter should be issued to the resigned associate immediately on his exit. The ideal practice should be to get the F&F settlement done on the last day of the associate's employment with the establishment and relieve him with a F&F settlement copy, relieving letter &/or experience letter (or combination of the both). Since the F&F settlement copy would have the associate's signature (as an acknowledgement), the establishment can pay out the dues to the associate within a couple of days (unless it's a termination case wherein you need to settle his dues immediately). In case the associate has to pay back to the establishment, he could be asked to submit a cheque on the last day of his employment, subsequently followed by issuance of the required relieving &/ experience letter. This will enable him/her to submit the same to his/her new employer.

But you need to have your HR process in place to get this process completed on time. Moreover, the "Mr/Ms Responsible" (for this activity) would have to be quite proactive and assertive to get the deliverables in time, since it would require a lot of coordination with the different departments/Finance-Accounts/etc. It's an excellent HR practice (since it would speak very high about the organization's excellence and professionalism) but it has to be driven from the top and that's where the role of the HR Head comes into play.

I know of few MNC's who religiously follow this standard process, but these are companies with excellent HR policies and practices. However, I have seen many many other organizations who either settle your account after a few days or even later to the associate's exit. In most of the Government (both state Govt and central Govt.) organizations, you would find the relieving/settlement process getting done days/weeks later.

Best Regards, A.B.

Thank you Very Much "A.B " for your valuable Information. I have one more question Lets Say as per the NDA signed by an employee his notice period is 60 Days & his designation was executive & after an year he got promoted to senior Executive In General Senior executive Notice Period is 90 days in my company his revised compensation letter contains only Revised designation & CTC alone but No changes or No information about Notice period . In that case what is the actual NP of that employee ? Does the employer has right to ask employee to Serve 90 days of Notice Period

"No" Vinodkumar. All the terms of employment needs to be specified whenever there is any change or modification. So, unless you would have stated the same in any kind of official letter issued to the associate (and that he has acknowledged it), you cannot compel him to serve 90 days notice.

If you see, most of the promotion letter would always have an line stating (after the mention of the new designation/reporting/remuneration/etc details) that "All the other terms and conditions of your employment would remain the same as in the appointment letter". And that is where WE, as HR make a mistake.

If your company has a Official Policy in place which clearly states the notice period for different levels of people, and that all your employees have easy access to them, then you can ideally add a line (in the promotion letter) stating that "All the other terms and conditions of your employment would remain the same as in the appointment letter except for those stated in the company policies, which become applicable in case of promotion/transfer/restructuring/change in designation/level/job location/function/work timings/etc".

Regards, A.B..