Can former employer tell future employer if employee got sacked?

BusinessStudent

Hello all,

My friend got sacked sometime ago from his place of work. Thankfully after many months of claiming JSA and being without a job my friend has now been successful in obtaining anotherjob.

My friend has just started his new job and has phoned me to say he is alarmed that an employee approached him and asked "so you got fired then from your previous job then?". As you can imagine my friend was deeply shocked and surprised at this especially it being his first day! This employee is not a manager, he is just bar staff like my friend. This member of bar staff knew exactly where my friend previously worked.

I believe my friend completed a application form online for this job, went for the interview and did a trial shift last week. 3 days after the trial shift he had been told he had got the job and was asked to start work the day after. I don’t believe my friend stated anywhere on the application form that he had been sacked from his previous job.

I think what may of happenedis that management had phoned my friends previous employer and someone there has disclosed that he was sacked and that the manager has informed other staff of this?

Was my friends previous employer legally able to tell his new employer that he had been sacked?
Has my friends new employer broken confidentiality about telling other bar staff about his past employment history?

Torry_Quine

I presume that the previous employer was contacted for a reference and was told of the sacking. That is absolutely correct and not a problem and to be honest it should have been raised prior to this at interview at least when your friend could put their side.

However it is totally wrong for that information to become staff gossip and should be confidential to only management and not all and sundry.

BusinessStudent

Torry_Quine wrote: »

I presume that the previous employer was contacted for a reference and was told of the sacking. That is absolutely correct and not a problem and to be honest it should have been raised prior to this at interview at least when your friend could put their side.

However it is totally wrong for that information to become staff gossip and should be confidential to only management and not all and sundry.

Hi Torry Quine,

Yes, I presume that my mates previous employer was contacted for reference. Can my mates previous employer legally tell his new employer that he was sacked?

paddedjohn

The previous employer can tell the new employer anything as long as its factual and true.

heretolearn_2

Can my mates previous employer legally tell his new employer that he was sacked?

Yes. Information in References has to be true. He was sacked. So this is true.

Some people get an idea that employers can't say anything 'bad' in a reference - this is just wishful thinking.

barbarawright

Presumably former employer isn't the only person who about the sacking. All the former workmates must have done too. Word may well have got around via the gossip grapevine - I wouldn't assume that the new manager has been the one to spread it. But yes, a lot of references nowadays are questionnaires and if one of the questions is 'Why did applicant leave your employment?', what do you expect the referee to say?

dseventy

Torry_Quine wrote: »

I presume that the previous employer was contacted for a reference and was told of the sacking. That is absolutely correct and not a problem and to be honest it should have been raised prior to this at interview at least when your friend could put their side.

Have to agree with this.

There are consequences to being sacked and by not telling her/his new employer she has not been able to give his/her version of events.
D70

anamenottaken

BusinessStudent wrote: »

I believe my friend completed a application form online for this job, went for the interview and did a trial shift last week. 3 days after the trial shift he had been told he had got the job and was asked to start work the day after. I don’t believe my friend stated anywhere on the application form that he had been sacked from his previous job.

I think what may of happenedis that management had phoned my friends previous employer and someone there has disclosed that he was sacked and that the manager has informed other staff of this?

Does your friend know whether they gave a reason on the application form?

Not all forms ask for the reason for leaving but very many do. Did your friend lie, not answer the question, or not see that the question was asked?

Did they provide reference contract details and agree that their former employer could be contacted?

Torry_Quine

BusinessStudent wrote: »

Hi Torry Quine,

Yes, I presume that my mates previous employer was contacted for reference. Can my mates previous employer legally tell his new employer that he was sacked?

As long as a reference is true then yes there is nothing to stop an ex-employer saying someone was sacked and the reason why.

Takeaway_Addict

The only real issue here is how a non management/HR person came to know about the dismissal. It maybe worth pursuing but tbh is it worth it?

If anything it may get the current employers back up

Affynity

Yes, a former employer can speak objectively and honestly when approached as a referee. However, they usually ask for permission to contact the referee on the application or at the interview.
If someone has this information before permission was obtained then somebody isn't doing their job right.

If your friend was not asked whether they had a prior dismissal then they needn't worry from a deceptive view-point.
Unless your friend was subsequently dismissed from this new job then I wouldn't raise the issue. It could just be that this random member of staff knows someone where he was previously sacked from.
The best advice you can give your friend is to work like a model employee and forge value in their new workplace. That way if unfavourable information comes to light, your colleagues will start to suspect the previous employer was a bit dodgy.