Please Help. About to be fired in 3 weeks!

ali-t

Op, do you have proof you were there that would suffice e.g. your p60 each year that would give details of employment or earnings?

I would ask new company for paperwork and take it to old company myself or offer to pay for a courier to take it, get it signed and bring back to new employer.

amiehall

If you don't have a P60, HMRC would give you a statement of earnings if you asked for one that would normally confirm start and finish dates as well as wage in relevant tax year. Not a great reference but would confirm you actually did work there...

lucy03

duchy wrote: »

Some jobs need continuous references going back X number of years with no gaps where security is a concern,

If it can be proved that the previous employer refused to give a reference out of malice there may be grounds to claim damages.

An employer doesn't have to give a reference unless there's a specific contractual agreement to do so or unless the job is in a certain regulated area.

FBaby

whitewing wrote: »

I agree with picking up hardcopies of letters and emails from the new company and taking them over the old company yourself.

Indeed, surely if it comes down to risking kidding a job you enjoy that's the only way to go about it?

JethroUK

theoretica wrote: »

It could be incompetence by the screening department... are the questions confidential (not the answers) and is the old employer close by. I am wondering if you could be given a copy of the reference request and carry it over to your old HR yourself.

What you said

I would definitely go there in person with the form and wait for it to be completed or make an appointment to come back and collect it - support this with daily reminders

A least then they can not say they haven't had it

Undervalued

duchy wrote: »

Some jobs need continuous references going back X number of years with no gaps where security is a concern,

If it can be proved that the previous employer refused to give a reference out of malice there may be grounds to claim damages.

No.

Apart from a handful of regulated occupations there is no obligation on a former employer to provide a reference or respond in any way.

If they do provide one it must be true and not deliberately misleading. Whilst I appreciate that not responding can be interpreted as having nothing good to say that is not how the law would see it.

the_donchichio

I always assumed that the latest legislation requires employers to only give general references such as the colleague worked x hours, missed x amount of days, was working in the x position and so forth...apparently personal opinions are not required to be submitted(this is what I have been informed) although all the potential employers need to do is submit questionnaires asking 'would you rehire the colleague' to which a negative answer could be detrimental to the potential employee

Undervalued

the_donchichio wrote: »

I always assumed that the latest legislation requires employers to only give general references such as the colleague worked x hours, missed x amount of days, was working in the x position and so forth...apparently personal opinions are not required to be submitted(this is what I have been informed) although all the potential employers need to do is submit questionnaires asking 'would you rehire the colleague' to which a negative answer could be detrimental to the potential employee

No, this is very largely a myth!

Whilst some employers may well choose to operate in this way they don't have to. Also, as I said earlier, apart from a few professions there is no obligation on the former employer to respond in any way.

the_donchichio

On the subject, I do recall one of my managers receiving a reference request from an ex employee's current employers that my manager just ignored and did not even reply

General_Grant

the_donchichio wrote: »

I always assumed that the latest legislation requires employers to only give general references such as the colleague worked x hours, missed x amount of days, was working in the x position and so forth...apparently personal opinions are not required to be submitted(this is what I have been informed) although all the potential employers need to do is submit questionnaires asking 'would you rehire the colleague' to which a negative answer could be detrimental to the potential employee

Not sure what legislation you had in mind but (with limited exceptions as mentioned in other posts) there is no requirement to give any reference at all.

What it contains is up to the reference giver but it should be accurate and not deliberately misleading either by omission or otherwise.

One of my previous employers would always respond that they would not re-hire where an employee had resigned because their resignation showed they were not satisfied with the company and therefore the company could not accept them back. One exception to this (re-hiring being possible) was if the resignation was caused by pregnancy. So such an automatic negative view of such a statement needs to be tempered by this possibility.