Techie Fired For Taking Leave During Notice Period, Refused Experience Letter

Mumbai: An Indian company terminated the services of a software developer for taking a few leaves during notice period and refused to give him an experience letter, jeopardising further career prospect.

The employee, with the user name of oreki791 on Reddit, shared the ordeal and sought advice on how to get experience letter.

“I was on notice period in this company I joined 2 months ago (put papers because toxic environment – making me do unpaid overwork) and after I took a couple of leaves during the notice period, the HR called to tell me that the company has decided to terminate me and that they will not be providing any relieving letter etc,” the employee wrote in Reddit’s ‘developersIndia’ community.

Worried about the future, the employee further wrote, “Is there anything I can do to get that Exp letter as they had provided me with a hike on my previous salary by 200 per cent and without this my current CTC will go down significantly and hurt me while job hunting. What actions can I take? Should I take?”

The online developer community quickly responded, flooding the comments section with suggestions.

“Tell the HR that they can’t withhold the relieving letter. They don’t have to give you a recommendation or anything. But they should at least provide a start and end date of your employment,” wrote one person.

Many advised the fired employee to hire a lawyer.

“Happened to my colleague. Don’t lie about this to your next employer. Get this in writing. Don’t worry about spending 50k on a really good lawyer. Please get a lawyer,” suggested one user.

Another advised, “Send a legal notice.”

“Companies do give experience letters even if they lay you off. Is the company that laid you off, not? Because that’s probably illegal,” wrote another user.