Ex Place Of Work Disclosing Dismissal?

abercrombie

I used to work for a company and was dismissed, I am aware that this is my own fault and no one else's and realise I was in the wrong. When I was dismissed because of embarrassment I didn't disclose to friends the reason nor did I declare it to future employers. However it came to my attention last year that two of my friends bumped into someone I used to work with and his wife and they openly told my friends all the details and more recently on Twitter it have been a public conversation between other members of staff. Due to none of these staff being managers that were in my disciplinary I don't know how they know this information as I always thought managers were not allowed to disclose this to other staff members? Also I thought a company wasn't allowed to hinder any possible opportunities for future employment and that my reasons for dismissal would have been in my HR file which should be protected by the Data Protection Act?

I'm not sure if this is correct or not? Am I within my right to contact my previous employer and ask them to take it up with the members of staff in question for discussing it with people that don't work for the company and also posting it on public domain and also are they in breach of the DPA or any other law because of this? As I say I am not really that clued up on the law and they might be well within their right but just wanted to check before I make any contact with them.

Cheers

Hammyman

Are you seriously telling us that you don't think that any of the people who you worked with and who would have seen what had gone on couldn't have worked out that you'd been fired and the reason why?

As regards to the whole company hindering future employment, as long as what they say is the truth they can do just that. They can give a bad reference, give the reason you were no longer employed is because you were sacked and even say why as long as it is the truth.

There is no breach of the DPA if someone has worked out something for themselves and posted it as their own opinion. And just because something is in a file, it doesn't mean it is covered by the non-disclosure part of the DPA.

Torry_Quine

abercrombie wrote: »

I used to work for a company and was dismissed, I am aware that this is my own fault and no one else's and realise I was in the wrong. When I was dismissed because of embarrassment I didn't disclose to friends the reason nor did I declare it to future employers. However it came to my attention last year that two of my friends bumped into someone I used to work with and his wife and they openly told my friends all the details and more recently on Twitter it have been a public conversation between other members of staff. Due to none of these staff being managers that were in my disciplinary I don't know how they know this information as I always thought managers were not allowed to disclose this to other staff members? Also I thought a company wasn't allowed to hinder any possible opportunities for future employment and that my reasons for dismissal would have been in my HR file which should be protected by the Data Protection Act?

I'm not sure if this is correct or not? Am I within my right to contact my previous employer and ask them to take it up with the members of staff in question for discussing it with people that don't work for the company and also posting it on public domain and also are they in breach of the DPA or any other law because of this? As I say I am not really that clued up on the law and they might be well within their right but just wanted to check before I make any contact with them.

Cheers

i don't know the law in this area but it certainly sounds as if something has gone wrong.

It should have been disclosed to any prospective employer though, you must have given a reason for the job ending and surely they were a reference?

abercrombie

Torry_Quine wrote: »

i don't know the law in this area but it certainly sounds as if something has gone wrong.

It should have been disclosed to any prospective employer though, you must have given a reason for the job ending and surely they were a reference?

After being dismissed I went to college and then got my current job following that. With the reference I was told by my current employer that it came back fine so whether thats true or they just pretended to have bothered I don't know?

Uncertain

abercrombie wrote: »

After being dismissed I went to college and then got my current job following that. With the reference I was told by my current employer that it came back fine so whether thats true or they just pretended to have bothered I don't know?

It may be that your old employer has a policy of providing only minimal references so they simply confirmed the dates of your employment.

It is also possible that they took a charitable view and had no wish to harm your future employment prospects. For example they could have said "worked here for five years and performance was generally good". This could be a perfectly true statement if it was just a one off incident that led to your departure.

Realistically a firm has little if any control over what individual staff may say privately and no control at all over former staff. I think you will struggle to prove any breach of the DPA here unless you can show they printed out your records and put them up on a notice board with rude comments!

Sorry.