references

Akoto

Yes that old bugbear again.

Is there any legal way that an individual can compel an ex-employer to with hold information it may have about them from a prospective employer unless that individual gives their express consent, or if the ex-employer is bound to disclose by law?

antonic

If you have something to hide from your future employer then why ask your last employer ?.

Your last employer CAN refuse to provide a reference OR if they do provide one it can merely give your dates of employment and nothing else.

Akoto

antonic wrote: »

If you have something to hide from your future employer then why ask your last employer ?.

Your last employer CAN refuse to provide a reference OR if they do provide one it can merely give your dates of employment and nothing else.

new employers in general will ask for references from the last employer. its standard practice.

and perhaps I should make myself clear; what if my ex-employer is intent on disclosing conduct/disciplinary matters and intends to willingly supply that information in any reference it is approached for?

are there any legal avenues to prevent this or do they have all rights to disclose?

LadyMissA

Akoto wrote: »

new employers in general will ask for references from the last employer. its standard practice.

and perhaps I should make myself clear; what if my ex-employer is intent on disclosing conduct/disciplinary matters and intends to include that in any reference it is approached for?

are there any legal avenues to prevent this or do they have all rights to disclose?

You can enter into an agreement that the ex employer only disclose the dates you were there and the job title. An employer does not have to answer any questions from the new employer nor do they have to give a reference, but if you can get a formal agreement that they will ONLY give that info out on your and nothing else then thats all they will give. IF not then they can and probably will answers anything the newxt employer asks.

My old employer only gives a standard reference for everyone since they got stung after giving a top reference for someone then 5 mths later found out they had stolen BIG ££££ from the company.

pjread

Akoto wrote: »

are there any legal avenues to prevent this or do they have all rights to disclose?

Well, will the information be anything disputable?

If it's indisputable ("Yes, they worked here for x years. They were dismissed following three written warnings and a disciplinary procedure for drinking whilst in the cockpit") then you're out of luck really.

Best bet might be to either 1/ direct reference requests to a friendly manager (if poss) at ex-employer, or 2/ be up front with prospective employer. (e.g. "Yes, I hit the bottle after a bus crash wiped out my family on the same day I got diagnosed with brain cancer, but I worked there for ten years and had no issues other than those last 3 months")

Akoto

pjread wrote: »

Well, will the information be anything disputable?

If it's indisputable ("Yes, they worked here for x years. They were dismissed following three written warnings and a disciplinary procedure for drinking whilst in the cockpit") then you're out of luck really.

Best bet might be to either 1/ direct reference requests to a friendly manager (if poss) at ex-employer, or 2/ be up front with prospective employer. (e.g. "Yes, I hit the bottle after a bus crash wiped out my family on the same day I got diagnosed with brain cancer, but I worked there for ten years and had no issues other than those last 3 months")

My worry is not the official warnings which were very minor in nature (failure to follow a management instruction etc.), but the questions that will come after that to the ex-employer who will then happily throw in a whole load of unsubstantiated stuff.

i.e. the 'official' stuff, which is limited in nature, is just a premise for something else, more sinister and opinion based, and whether anything can be done about that.

marybelle01

Akoto wrote: »

My worry is not the official warnings which were very minor in nature (failure to follow a management instruction etc.), but the questions that will come after that to the ex-employer who will then happily throw in a whole load of unsubstantiated stuff.

i.e. the 'official' stuff, which is limited in nature, is just a premise for something else, very much opinion based, and whether anything can be done about that.

Interesting slant on working life. Refusing to do what your employer told you to do is "minor " stuff. I think you might find that most employers wouldn't agree with your perspective, and wouldn't need to be told anything more.

Akoto

marybelle01 wrote: »

Interesting slant on working life. Refusing to do what your employer told you to do is "minor " stuff. I think you might find that most employers wouldn't agree with your perspective, and wouldn't need to be told anything more.

but what if they threw in a whole load of other, unsubstantiated stuff with no basis on top of that one issue?

could you not argue that it was just as likely that the unsubstantiated stuff was what influenced them?

im talking about allegations which border on criminal which have no foundation.

are they allowed to say anything they like about me due to the fact that they have this one warning on the file?

marybelle01

Akoto wrote: »

but what if they threw in a whole load of other, unsubstantiated stuff with no basis on top of that one issue?

could you not argue that it was just as likely that the unsubstantiated stuff was what influenced them?

im talking about allegations which border on criminal which have no foundation.

are they allowed to say anything they like about me due to the fact that they have this one warning on the file?

Not formally. But a telephone conversation is hard to prove. You can argue anything you like - if you can't prove that anything was said then your arguments are worthless.

Akoto

marybelle01 wrote: »

Not formally. But a telephone conversation is hard to prove. You can argue anything you like - if you can't prove that anything was said then your arguments are worthless.

Yes of course there are transcriptions of the conversations that took place from the potential new employer. They gave me them as part of the reason that they withdrew the offer.

And anyway, why wouldn't a new employer tell me these things? They may as well if that's what they've been told, and they believe them to be true....

marybelle01

I am unclear what you are trying to ask here. Checking back on your previous posts you have asked this question several times now. You already know the answers, and in January you said you were taking legal action on this. It's now the end of March and you are still asking how to prevent the ex-employer from (you say) telling lies. Why are we still discussing the same issue? If you have proof and you are taking legal action, what other answer can we give you?