Employment Law Bods

[Icey]

After a bit of help/advice.

A family member is getting a bit done over by there current workplace and would just like to know where they stand and if anyone has relevant links/information on the following I'd appreciate it.

Short story is:

Person applies for job, has been told they get the job as long as the references come back OK.

One reference comes back fine, the other comes back and is a BAD reference.

Company that has given the BAD reference have never had to take any disciplinary action or have never taken the person to one side for any problems.

The person has never had any problems in the job other than the fact that they are overworked and do not get reasonable travel time / breaks / lunch. The person has brought this up several times with said company and it has been ignored.

Can the people that they have applied for the job with show the BAD reference to the person involved, or does the person involved have to go back to the company they are currently employed in, to find out what has been said?

So I guess what I am asking what is the law of BAD references, and if a person has been given one unfairly then how would you go about rectifying the matter?

This was complete unexpected and the person involved is most upset, as you can imagine!
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[The Shaggy D.A.]

My previous employer stopped management from giving references, passing all of them through HR to avoid being liable for things like this :-

https://www.personneltoday.com/articles/2008/03/05/44746/unfair-reference-lands-south-tyneside-council-with-36000.html

Not sure of which regulation there is, but there is one.
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[Icey]

[msgander]

totally depends on what you mean by a "bad" reference. If the Company has supplied accurate information, but not infamatory advice about you, then they are allowed to do that. Ie days sickness, if it's accurate thats fine.

A Company cannot give a "bad reference" insofar as slate your character, say you were awful etc etc, if they have and you have been employed for at least 12 months, take them to tribunal. Its a hot potato in tribunals currently, ask for copy of the reference from the employer that turned you down because of it.

We send out standard refs even for directors now, name, date of employment, job title, thats it....simply because of incidents like this!
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[Wise1]

A reference must be based on factual documented evidence.

What you do have the right of access to is any information held on file by your previous employer under the data protection act.

A reference cant provide an opinion about someone unless that opinion can be suppoted by evidence.

As an example.

On the reference your previous employer states that your work was not up to the required standard on a number of occasions and that they therefore did not consider you to a competent report writer.

This is fine, however they must therefore hold on your personal file evidence of documented discussions held with you explaining your work was not up to standard.

If they did not have this then they legally they are without a paddle.


So in essence what I am saying is that you can make your employer turn over your personal file and obtain everything in it to which your entitled, from that you can decide whether there is anything in there that implies something negative could be written in a reference.

If there is nothing then you can ask your previous employer for an explanation and see where that leads or take legal action.

Has the current employer now refused to honour the job?
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[Wise1]

As already stated before, its a hot one, but tribunals are supporting the employee more than ever becuase firms simply cant evidence the reasons for giving inaccurate references.

In my firms case we give name, date of birth, time employed and position within firm. If they want salary we must get written permission from the employee first.

We wont give - sickness, performance, conduct or disciplinary information.
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Previous - GSXR750 SRAD, Fireblade, ZXR750, CBR600

[MarJay]

Take them for everything they've got. It sounds like they have no understanding of current employment law.

I think you are allowed to see any references supplied for you, but I don't know if you can go to the current employer or the employer that turned you down.
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