Informal reference cost me amazing job offer

Rudess

Update: the future employer just confirmed to me by email that the reason for withdrawing the offer was due to HR 'issue' which I had. That confirms my suspicions that my previous manager is responsible for this, as my manager was only person who knew.

Now I think I'll consult lawyer to see if we can sue for damages.

Undervalued

Rudess wrote: »

Update: the future employer just confirmed to me by email that the reason for withdrawing the offer was due to HR 'issue' which I had. That confirms my suspicions that my previous manager is responsible for this, as my manager was only person who knew.

Now I think I'll consult lawyer to see if we can sue for damages.

Sorry but you have had some excellent advice on here but you don't seem to be taking it onboard.

In summary:-

The prospective employer can contact who they please.

Unless somebody has given them information that is provably untrue or deliberately misleading there is nothing whatever you can do about it.

Even if they have, you will face an uphill battle to get sufficient evidence.

In the very unlikely event you get such evidence then you have two choices.

An action for libel which can only be brought in the High Court and is prohibitively expensive for most people.

or

Possibly a County Court action for negligent misstatement which would at least be cheaper and less of a risk.

If you want my advice, forget it and move on.

Rudess

Undervalued wrote: »

Sorry but you have had some excellent advice on here but you don't seem to be taking it onboard.

In summary:-

The prospective employer can contact who they please.

Unless somebody has given them information that is provably untrue or deliberately misleading there is nothing whatever you can do about it.

Even if they have, you will face an uphill battle to get sufficient evidence.

In the very unlikely event you get such evidence then you have two choices.

An action for libel which can only be brought in the High Court and is prohibitively expensive for most people.

or

Possibly a County Court action for negligent misstatement which would at least be cheaper and less of a risk.

If you want my advice, forget it and move on.

Thanks, I appreciate your reply.

getmore4less

I have been trying to think what you can do here.

IME(I see at least one other has similar) employment is a much smaller world than a lot of people think.

A lot of the places I would look for employment there is a good chance there are people that know me, the better employers in my sector have multiple people that know me already from previous employments(very positive for networking).

Now if you have anything negative in your employment history you have to judge if you need to bring this to a potential employers attention, eg if you broke your leg and were off sick for a significant period and suspect sickness records may obtained you tell the potential new employer.

You have HR issue that you may need to consider presenting at some point before they go hunting into your previous/current life, same with things like your on-line presence, eg keep your face book clean.

If you believe it is one person after you then you may be better off convincing HR to issue a statement of the truth or get them to take action, if they back up this person any claim(s) is doomed.

Rudess

getmore4less wrote: »

I have been trying to think what you can do here.

IME(I see at least one other has similar) employment is a much smaller world than a lot of people think.

A lot of the places I would look for employment there is a good chance there are people that know me, the better employers in my sector have multiple people that know me already from previous employments(very positive for networking).

Now if you have anything negative in your employment history you have to judge if you need to bring this to a potential employers attention, eg if you broke your leg and were off sick for a significant period and suspect sickness records may obtained you tell the potential new employer.

You have HR issue that you may need to consider presenting at some point before they go hunting into your previous/current life, same with things like your on-line presence, eg keep your face book clean.

If you believe it is one person after you then you may be better off convincing HR to issue a statement of the truth or get them to take action, if they back up this person any claim(s) is doomed.

Tried sending you private message but your inbox is full.

I wonder what is statement of the truth? Never heard of it before.

Also you said I should ask it from HR (presumably, my current company's HR?) .

sangie595

My understanding of a statement of truth is a legal phrasing appended to a document presented in court. But even if there is something else intended her, a statement of truth appears to be that the OP has a warning on record for being difficult to work with. As things stand the OP has no real idea what was said or who said it. HR are far more likely to wash their hands of it than take any action based on random guesswork on the part of the OP. Or, in fact, the OP may end up facing another disciplinary for wild accusations against people - something that isn't going to sit unhappily with their existing warning as making them impossible to work with, and may be edging them towards a dismissal.

It is just as possible that the potential employer got their information from someone else entirely; or even that they were making up an excuse for other reasons. The OP has no proof of anything at all.

rmmfree

I'm sorry for that, but I think that it may be difficult to prove, and might cost you some money. Perhaps the new company didn't tell you the truth and they have incorporated an old teammate for that position, or many other different reasons nearly impossible to know. So I wouldn't complicate my life worrying about it and I would simply let it go.

getmore4less

Rudess wrote: »

Tried sending you private message but your inbox is full.

I wonder what is statement of the truth? Never heard of it before.

Also you said I should ask it from HR (presumably, my current company's HR?) .

You just get a statement/reference from HR that details the truth about your issue.

but as sangie says this only helps if the issue was effectively dismissed internally.

Undervalued

getmore4less wrote: »

You just get a statement/reference from HR that details the truth about your issue.

but as sangie says this only helps if the issue was effectively dismissed internally.

But they don't have to give you one.

Obviously you can use a subject access request under the DPA to get access to the data they hold (within limits). However it is amazing what can "disappear" from a file and it can be very difficult to do prove that has happened.

A complaint to the Information Commissioner may get them a minor slap on the wrist but that doesn't help you very much.

TBagpuss

Rudess wrote: »

Is it legal for someone who works for the company to give a bad reference about me, even though we never worked together and he was never my manager and all he know is through gossip he got from my manager? that's one of the key issues from my point of view. I want to try and claim that my manager should not have gossiped in the first place, as this mate of his wouldn't have known about my HR issue otherwise.

It may be a breach of company policy for a member of staff to give an informal reference (For instance, we have a policy about who is permitted to give references, and in what format), so *if* you could prove that this person spoke to the new employer ou might be able to raise that internally.

Hpowever, it is not illegal to gossip. As previous posters have said, ther eis a potential claim agaisnt someone who knowingly gives a false reference, but you would have to show that what they said was false. If there was a disciplinary matter then it is not false for someone to say that you were disciplined, even if they were not a part of the process, or if you feel that the diciplinary action was unfair or one-sided

References are subject to an exemption in the Data Protection rules -your curent employer does not have to give you a copy of the referecens they provie. You *may* be able to make a subject access request to the new company, however, if they received the reference on the basis that it was confidential they have a duty to reserve the anonymity of the person given the reference, so even if they poprovide you with details of the information provided they won't tell you who they spoke to.

Also, it is perfectly possible to give a bad reference which is entirely truthful.

e.g. Potential employer asks old employer "would you employer this person again"
Old Employer "I'd prefer not to answer that question"

The employer has said nothin which is untrue or actionable but it's still likely to ring warning bells for the new employer.