Indian Company Terminates Employee, Demands 3-Month Salary in Exchange for Experience Letter

A project manager was wrongfully terminated by an Indian company just one day after they submitted their resignation. The company also threatened to report the project manager to future employers that they left the company during the background verification (BGV) process. What’s more, the company demanded three months’ salary in exchange for providing the individual with an experience certificate. The Redditor shared their ordeal on the US-based platform and asked users to help secure next job in Chennai.

Indian company’s CEO rejected resignation

The individual, who goes by “Randy31599” on Reddit, was experiencing intense pressure at work and felt the need to take a break due to their declining health. They tendered their resignation for medical reasons and requested an early release in a month. However, their resignation was rejected, and they were instructed to continue working despite being ill.

“I am a project manager, and I worked at a company for more than 8 months. They even gave me a raise and everything, but as time went on, the pressure became intense, and I couldn’t handle it. A month ago, I was diagnosed with fatty liver, and a week later, I contracted chickenpox. When I asked for just 3 days of leave, my CEO emailed me, asking me to work from home, but I refused and only partially supported the team,” the person said.

They added, “However, I was feeling the need to take a break, so I submitted my resignation due to medical reasons and requested an early release in 1 month. My CEO refused to accept my resignation, despite my medical condition, and asked me to continue working.”

Employee re-submitted resignation only to get it rejected again

The Redditor added that they submitted the resignation again after meeting with an accident and the company again rejected it. “I had an accident and injured my hand. I then reiterated my resignation with the addition of my injury and again requested an early release. My company still refused and showed no empathy,” the Reddit user further said.

“I took 2 days of leave to process this,” they expressed.

Threat and wrongful termination

However, this time, the company went a bit too far and terminated the employee, along with threatening them. “The day after my resignation, they sent a termination email, threatened to report that I left improperly in the background verification (BGV),” they claimed.

The Redditor turned to online community for help after the company demanded three months’ salary to release the experience certificate.

How did Redditors react to this?

Many said that that the Indian company, whose name is not revealed, is “harassing” them and suggested consulting a good lawyer. Some even suggested to file a complaint with the Ministry of Labour.

One individual said, “Walk in with chickenpox to the CEOs cabin and be escorted out with whatever your demand is,” and many replied to this with “this is the way”.

“Have you lost access to your work system and email already? If not, please save any email/comms related to your performance at the firm, leave applications and their response/denials, resignation/termination etc,” another suggested.

A third wrote, “Since you worked only for 8 months, you can decide not to show this experience in the next job. So, no need of experience letter. Don’t pay anything.”

The Redditor, in another post on the platform, shared that they have four years of experience as a project manager and have offer letter, payslips, increment letter, and termination email with them. They asked, “Will these documents help me secure another job? How can I explain this situation to HR? Can someone help me navigate this situation?”