Dismissed without warning 1 yr 11 months into employment, end date of employment 3 mnths later

Undervalued

NewLeaf1986 said:

Gotcha, by happenchance it does seem they are at least giving positive references.

A recruiter rather naughtily and in breach of GDPR approach the prior employer for a reference without my other half's consent and advised that they gave a glowing report back of his performance and achievements. Which, TBF, if they gave anything else besides that it would certainly be libellous / defamation, considering he never acted against his contract and made the firm a stupid amount of money in new contracts and market offerings. 

It's honestly completely bizarre this happened at all let alone so suddenly. It all came after he took a week of annual leave during which time it was realised no one else within the organisation is able to competently backfill his precise and nuanced duties in his absence. So the solution to this is to get rid of your single point of failure? 

The logic behind that reasoning is baffling to me. 

Not sure that technically the recruiter was in breach of the GDPR just by asking. The employer almost certainly was in breach by replying without the subject's consent. After all, journalists seek information without the subject's consent all the time, generally without breaking the law!

A reference that says anything provably untrue or deliberately misleading can be libellous. And yes, by a clever use of words it is possible to deliberately mislead without straying from the truth! Equally, except in a very few regulated occupations, an employer can't be forced to give a reference at all. A refusal is usually taken as having nothing good to say but is completely unactionable.

These days, following a fairly recent change in the law, references are generally exempt from disclosure in a subject access request. In the past they could be obtained by making a SAR to the recipient, not the writer.  

Savvy_Sue

If he's in a union, I hope he's spoken to them