Turned down employment because of history

terric

Hello! Just got off a call with a friend who was offered employment with a company which he accepted and so turned down his other offers. However, a few days later (literally the day before he was due to start) he was contacted by his would-be manager who noticed that he was employed with this company around 10 years ago and was dismissed after two verbal warnings and a written warning. After a talk his would-be manager basically said "sorry, off you go" citing that it's policy to not re-employee people who've been previously dismissed.

Now given that:

a) He left the company on reasonably amicable terms
b) This was around 10 years ago
c) He was offered employment
d) He's turned down his other offers for this job - these offers no longer apply as they've been filled by other people

Does he have any grounds for appeal or... anything? I've encouraged him to make an account on here so he'll likely get involved himself at some point but this is to get the ball rolling.

Cheers everyone.

glentoran99

terric wrote: »

Hello! Just got off a call with a friend who was offered employment with a company which he accepted and so turned down his other offers. However, a few days later (literally the day before he was due to start) he was contacted by his would-be manager who noticed that he was employed with this company around 10 years ago and was dismissed after two verbal warnings and a written warning. After a talk his would-be manager basically said "sorry, off you go" citing that it's policy to not re-employee people who've been previously dismissed.

Now given that:

a) He left the company on reasonably amicable terms
b) This was around 10 years ago
c) He was offered employment
d) He's turned down his other offers for this job - these offers no longer apply as they've been filled by other people

Does he have any grounds for appeal or... anything? I've encouraged him to make an account on here so he'll likely get involved himself at some point but this is to get the ball rolling.

Cheers everyone.

What does that mean? Was he sacked?

Oakdene

I don't think there is, a company can change their mind at any time & I guess that unless he has paid out significant relocation costs there isn't much he can do sadly.

elsien

Short answer - no right of appeal.

Longer answer - they can retract the offer if they wish. After all why re-employ someone who had to be got rid of first time round? Did it not occur to him that he may still be on record? It wouldn't inspire me with confidence as a manager that a potential employer was withholding this sort of information and hoping to slip under the radar - did he lie on his CV/application form about the reason for leaving?

It may be out of the manager's hands if it's an HR decision. What were the warnings for, and can he demonstrate he has changed? But tbh I would suggest he should just move on.

ScorpiondeRooftrouser

He's essentially failed reference checks. The fact that the references were from the same company is immaterial, I would have thought. If a different company had said in a reference that he was dismissed 10 years ago after several warnings, the result would probably be the same.

terric

Thanks for the replies everyone, I've told him to create an account and post his replies to you himself.

bargainbetty

Some companies have a policy whereby a candidate who has had their employment terminated cannot be re-employed at any time, regardless of how long has passed. He was fired by your account, which means it cannot have been that amicable, and he should have declared that during the recruitment process.

Essentially, all offers are subject to references. If the references are unsatisfactory, they can withdraw the offer. It is not their fault that the other roles are filled.

neilio

If he was sacked, what was he thinking applying for a job there, presumably involving an interview of some kind, and expecting it to be hunky dory? On the other hand, what kind of operation is this company running if they didn't realise during the recruitment process who he was? Sounds very weird to me.

TELLIT01

I can't see any grounds to appeal or claim any form of compensation. Most companies will state that a job offer is subject to satisfactory references, and the OP's friend has failed on that point. If recruitment was being carried out by a 3rd party company they might not have had full access to employment history.
My niece worked for Royal Mail and left because she was moving out of the area. She applied for a job a couple of years later - recruitment done by 3rd party, and was given a job offer. A few days later she had a call to say the offer was being withdrawn because policy is not to re-employ within x years. In her case she had listed Royal Mail as a previous employer along the with relevant dates, so recruitment agencies to mess up and it's not until it gets the RM's own HR that it's picked up.

ScorpiondeRooftrouser

neilio wrote: »

If he was sacked, what was he thinking applying for a job there, presumably involving an interview of some kind, and expecting it to be hunky dory? On the other hand, what kind of operation is this company running if they didn't realise during the recruitment process who he was? Sounds very weird to me.

They did find out in the end. This could easily happen in my company. As in the company I work for, it's not "mine". And it's a massive multi-billion pound operation.

Oakdene

neilio wrote: »

If he was sacked, what was he thinking applying for a job there, presumably involving an interview of some kind, and expecting it to be hunky dory? On the other hand, what kind of operation is this company running if they didn't realise during the recruitment process who he was? Sounds very weird to me.

One who may have had many staff changes in the 10 years since he has worked there,