Former employer phoning up referees after employee has left

sparks_2023

My friend has just left employment at a homecare company.

It was a mutually agreed parting of the ways.

But now the company is contacting her referees.

Anyone know what might be going on ?

She wants to make a complaint about them - regarding other issues which she would have let lie until this reference follow up kicked the hornet's nest - but has no idea who to complain to.

General_Grant

sparks_2023 said:

My friend has just left employment at a homecare company.

It was a mutually agreed parting of the ways.

But now the company is contacting her referees.

Anyone know what might be going on ?

She wants to make a complaint about them - regarding other issues which she would have let lie until this reference follow up kicked the hornet's nest - but has no idea who to complain to.

By "homecare" I'm assuming you mean providing residential care for someone.
The now former employer should have contacted the referees before employing your friend.  
They may now have realised their failure to do so and so want to legitimise their decision to appoint.
Was your friend entirely honest in what she said about the work she had done?

Where to lodge a complaint depends on what sort of "other issues" are involved.

tightauldgit

sparks_2023 said:

My friend has just left employment at a homecare company.

It was a mutually agreed parting of the ways.

But now the company is contacting her referees.

Anyone know what might be going on ?

She wants to make a complaint about them - regarding other issues which she would have let lie until this reference follow up kicked the hornet's nest - but has no idea who to complain to.

Well you can never know what's going on in someone else's head but I imagine they are probably backside covering by checking in with former employers.

How long were they employed? If it's less than two years then most of the things they might complain about will be pointless. 

elsien

General_Grant said:

sparks_2023 said:

My friend has just left employment at a homecare company.

It was a mutually agreed parting of the ways.

But now the company is contacting her referees.

Anyone know what might be going on ?

She wants to make a complaint about them - regarding other issues which she would have let lie until this reference follow up kicked the hornet's nest - but has no idea who to complain to.

By "homecare" I'm assuming you mean providing residential care for someone.
The now former employer should have contacted the referees before employing your friend.  
They may now have realised their failure to do so and so want to legitimise their decision to appoint.
Was your friend entirely honest in what she said about the work she had done?

Where to lodge a complaint depends on what sort of "other issues" are involved.

More likely to be domiciliary care in people’s own homes. 

OP - does it not depend on why the company is  contacting referees and what they are saying?
The implication is that it’s a bad thing, but it really does depend on what’s been said before they launch into full complaints mode. Who has  told her and what explanation was given?

Marcon

sparks_2023 said:

My friend has just left employment at a homecare company.

It was a mutually agreed parting of the ways.

But now the company is contacting her referees.

Anyone know what might be going on ?

She wants to make a complaint about them - regarding other issues which she would have let lie until this reference follow up kicked the hornet's nest - but has no idea who to complain to.

What does she want to complain about? The company would have had a grievance procedure, so using that would have been the obvious route. Sounds as if she only wants to complain now on a tit for tat basis - but how does she know this? Gossip is a wonderful way to transmit distorted 'information'.

Probably best to let your friend decide what to do. You may well not have been told the full story, which means any intervention, however well meaning, could be on shaky ground.

TheSpiddalKid

General_Grant said:

sparks_2023 said:

My friend has just left employment at a homecare company.

It was a mutually agreed parting of the ways.

But now the company is contacting her referees.

Anyone know what might be going on ?

She wants to make a complaint about them - regarding other issues which she would have let lie until this reference follow up kicked the hornet's nest - but has no idea who to complain to.

By "homecare" I'm assuming you mean providing residential care for someone.
The now former employer should have contacted the referees before employing your friend.  
They may now have realised their failure to do so and so want to legitimise their decision to appoint.
Was your friend entirely honest in what she said about the work she had done?

Where to lodge a complaint depends on what sort of "other issues" are involved.

I've worked in recruitment in dom care and it is entirely possible the branch was just about to be inspected by the local authority, CQC or an internal audit, it had been realised references hadn't been obtained or verified and that was the purpose of the phone call as they are a legal requirement, a failure to obtain them can fail an inspection.

Undervalued

sparks_2023 said:

My friend has just left employment at a homecare company.

It was a mutually agreed parting of the ways.

But now the company is contacting her referees.

Anyone know what might be going on ?

She wants to make a complaint about them - regarding other issues which she would have let lie until this reference follow up kicked the hornet's nest - but has no idea who to complain to.

Well that is not in itself unlawful. You or I can perfectly well contact somebody and ask pretty much anything we like! Whether the person should respond or not is another matter. After all, journalists do it all the time!

Remember, a referee has a legal duty to both parties to be honest in anything they say about the applicant. Maybe the employer feels that the referee gave inaccurate or misleading information?