Bad References that cost me a new job
In short 'no" seek advice immediately your old employer can now be in trouble. bit sad that your new employer didnt see fit to discuss with you first on the alleged allegations.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/3065319.stm
Last week i had this amazing interview and was given the job on the spot pending references. Unfortunatly my last employment was ended illigally and i went to employment tribunal and my claim was settled out the tribunal by my last employer. Now I find that the reference back from my last employer is daming, critical and one sided that its not true. I was honest at my interview with this new company and they know that my employment ended with difficulty at my last employer but because of this bad reference, it could be curtains on my new job offer.
I am very angry and I dont know if an ex employer can give a bad reference so can anyone advise on what I can do?
Cheers
05/10/2005 22:46:46
Last week i had this amazing interview and was given the job on the spot pending references. Unfortunatly my last employment was ended illigally and i went to employment tribunal and my claim was settled out the tribunal by my last employer. Now I find that the reference back from my last employer is daming, critical and one sided that its not true. I was honest at my interview with this new company and they know that my employment ended with difficulty at my last employer but because of this bad reference, it could be curtains on my new job offer.
I am very angry and I dont know if an ex employer can give a bad reference so can anyone advise on what I can do? If it's untrue and has cost you your new job you can sue them for defamation.
Cheers
23/12/2005 13:02:58
Contact your new employer like the article says and do a data subject access request to get your old employers reference of them. If your new employer starts to be awarkard then you can threaten them with action under the Data Protection Act. Look at the information commissures website. Your new employer should have nothing to hide because they have not breached any employment law.
If you took your old employer to tribunal under a discrimination act e.g. sex, race etc you can submit a tribunal claim for post termination discrimination under the same act. Put "post termination employment discrimination" into google and you should find some useful information.
As you took tribunal action before you should know about time limits etc. So contact the people who helped you before if anyone.
Good luck.
23/12/2005 22:15:23
Last week i had this amazing interview and was given the job on the spot pending references. Unfortunatly my last employment was ended illigally and i went to employment tribunal and my claim was settled out the tribunal by my last employer. Now I find that the reference back from my last employer is daming, critical and one sided that its not true. I was honest at my interview with this new company and they know that my employment ended with difficulty at my last employer but because of this bad reference, it could be curtains on my new job offer.
I am very angry and I dont know if an ex employer can give a bad reference so can anyone advise on what I can do?
Cheers
31/12/2005 14:27:33
i am under the impression that your old company are now in breach of the libel law, they are not allowed to give a bad reference, they can only refuse to give one
31/12/2005 14:31:11
i am under the impression that your old company are now in breach of the libel law, they are not allowed to give a bad reference, they can only refuse to give one
You can sue an employer for deflamation but only rich people can afford to do this in the UK.
Therefore as a normal person your best bet is if you think your employer has discriminated against you in anyway during your employment put this in some written form and sent it to them. Keep proof that you sent them the letter so if they slag you off in a reference and you lose the job, you get the reference from the new employer under the data protection act and take the old employer to a tribunal. The old employer has no legal defence against this and so will have to either pay you compensation for loss of earnings whilst you searched for a new job and you can get an agreed reference out of them if they settle before the tribunal.
01/01/2006 19:54:54
I got a job in one of the Big 4 accountancy firm in January 2006. My employment is terminated because my previous employer given a wrong reference. My new employer did not contacted my previous employer for the reference, but the previous employer himself contacted my new employer. He accused me of being dishonest (which is totally wrong). He lied alot and he wanted my new employer to terminate my job. His exact wording are as follows "Mr ... will be able to gain access to any reference whether confidential or not by virtue of the provision of the data protection act, hence I am unable to provide a reference at this stage. I will, however, confirm that I would not re-employ this individual again due to issues over integrity and honesty." I am unemployed now and have no resources to sue him in the civil court. Please advise me what should I do?
25/02/2006 18:24:45
I got a job in one of the Big 4 accountancy firm in January 2006. My employment is terminated because my previous employer given a wrong reference. My new employer did not contacted my previous employer for the reference, but the previous employer himself contacted my new employer. He accused me of being dishonest (which is totally wrong). He lied alot and he wanted my new employer to terminate my job. His exact wording are as follows "Mr ... will be able to gain access to any reference whether confidential or not by virtue of the provision of the data protection act, hence I am unable to provide a reference at this stage. I will, however, confirm that I would not re-employ this individual again due to issues over integrity and honesty." I am unemployed now and have no resources to sue him in the civil court. Please advise me what should I do?
Unsual thing for him to do, was there any truth in what he said?
25/02/2006 21:59:12
Unsual thing for him to do, was there any truth in what he said?
There is no truth what so ever in his statement as he originally asked me to stay with him even for longer period and initially tried to blackmail me that he if i could stay with him for longer period he would give me reference but i could not. The only thing he has got against me on account of dishonesty and disintegrity is that i owe him few thousands pounds on account of training cost which was due to be paid by next employer once they have received the evidence of the amount payable. But my previous employer refused to give me any evidence and then later he sent the bad reference letter to my new employer. I hope this is sufficient to explain my case.
26/02/2006 13:07:35
There is no truth what so ever in his statement as he originally asked me to stay with him even for longer period and initially tried to blackmail me that he if i could stay with him for longer period he would give me reference but i could not. The only thing he has got against me on account of dishonesty and disintegrity is that i owe him few thousands pounds on account of training cost which was due to be paid by next employer once they have received the evidence of the amount payable. But my previous employer refused to give me any evidence and then later he sent the bad reference letter to my new employer. I hope this is sufficient to explain my case.
You could go through the courts and give him a seeing to, and at the same time have a look into his background, any dirty doings behind his Mrs back - mid thirties cant keep his pants up, tax evasion, nasty company fiddles, use the services of a honey trap agency. Try setting up a website to mirror his company and log on it what he done. More than one way of skinning a cat, and you get some fun out of it at the same time.
I did the website thing once when a local food packaging company dick started parking his large commercial vehicle out side my house. I politely asked him to move twice, didnt have any effect, but the website going live with photgraphs of passing drunks urinating into the back of the truck oddly enough caused a change in his parking habits.
Stay withing the law, and in the best possible taste of course. Good luck.
Dogbury
26/02/2006 16:01:21
You could go through the courts and give him a seeing to, and at the same time have a look into his background, any dirty doings behind his Mrs back - mid thirties cant keep his pants up, tax evasion, nasty company fiddles, use the services of a honey trap agency. Try setting up a website to mirror his company and log on it what he done. More than one way of skinning a cat, and you get some fun out of it at the same time.
I did the website thing once when a local food packaging company dick started parking his large commercial vehicle out side my house. I politely asked him to move twice, didnt have any effect, but the website going live with photgraphs of passing drunks urinating into the back of the truck oddly enough caused a change in his parking habits.
Stay withing the law, and in the best possible taste of course. Good luck.
Dogbury
Thanks very much for your help.
26/02/2006 21:37:12
hello 2 whom ever may read this, my problem started really when I started my new job,my boss asked me if I would like 2 do a training course which I thought great 'yes please' stupid me.I signed up for a day course which for nearly two months I enjoyed ,hard work doing full time at the same place but hayho.then people started dropping out of the day course and it changed to night time ,which I couldnt do as I'm a lone parent.This coursed sooooo much hassle , my boss said I broke the agreement which I did not as I signed for the day course and as I was working for her she carried on taking money out of my wages every month.I tried talking to her but NO she carried on,then I was not paid a lot of over time which was the nail in the coffin.So I I went for another job which I got and I handed in my notice .The next day during an activitiy with the children I was summoned up to the office and told she would pay me to the end of the month she would take out another payment for the cousre!!!! I was more than happy to work my months notice so I could say bye to the children but instead I collected my stuff and came home in a lil shock.My in line boss and another member of staff I worked with I put down as my referes are now not allowed to do my referances and only the overall boss whom I have never worked with.So I can not start my new job until she decides to do my referances...dawn
10/03/2006 15:38:55
hello 2 whom ever may read this, my problem started really when I started my new job,my boss asked me if I would like 2 do a training course which I thought great 'yes please' stupid me.I signed up for a day course which for nearly two months I enjoyed ,hard work doing full time at the same place but hayho.then people started dropping out of the day course and it changed to night time ,which I couldnt do as I'm a lone parent.This coursed sooooo much hassle , my boss said I broke the agreement which I did not as I signed for the day course and as I was working for her she carried on taking money out of my wages every month.I tried talking to her but NO she carried on,then I was not paid a lot of over time which was the nail in the coffin.So I I went for another job which I got and I handed in my notice .The next day during an activitiy with the children I was summoned up to the office and told she would pay me to the end of the month she would take out another payment for the cousre!!!! I was more than happy to work my months notice so I could say bye to the children but instead I collected my stuff and came home in a lil shock.My in line boss and another member of staff I worked with I put down as my referes are now not allowed to do my referances and only the overall boss whom I have never worked with.So I can not start my new job until she decides to do my referances...dawn
If you are in the UK look at employment tribunals (do a google search) and then submit an application for unlawful deduction for wages. Make sure your story is very clear, in bullet points and in chronological order. (Which your statement isn't at the moment.) Basically you need to state that your employer stated you would do x amount of training for a certain number of days. After that you would be paid in full. Instead they continually took a certain amount to cover training out of your salarly. State all amounts in full.
Don't worry if you have no contract of employment because if the employer has breached any employment regulations they will be s**ting themselves as they have to consult a solictor to defend them. This will cost them lots of money, and you very little.
11/03/2006 01:12:56
My ex employer gave bad reference to my current employer which categorically said I was dismissed. Is this legal. Please help me
06/09/2006 07:45:26
What should I do.
06/09/2006 07:47:28
Last week i had this amazing interview and was given the job on the spot pending references. Unfortunatly my last employment was ended illigally and i went to employment tribunal and my claim was settled out the tribunal by my last employer. Now I find that the reference back from my last employer is daming, critical and one sided that its not true. I was honest at my interview with this new company and they know that my employment ended with difficulty at my last employer but because of this bad reference, it could be curtains on my new job offer.
I am very angry and I dont know if an ex employer can give a bad reference so can anyone advise on what I can do?
Cheers
17/02/2007 03:07:36
I registered with a recruitment agency recently and had to give my last employer as a reference. During my time with them, admittedly I did have several days off during the three months I was employed with them due to sickness on my behalf and my 12 year old son. I was to be put forward for a really good position and have just been informed that the recruitment agency can no longer represent me?! I rang my last employer to see if they had given me a bad reference and was told that she was not going to lie on my behalf and told them I never worked a full week, which was a total lie!! Is my ex-employer allowed to do this?
13/03/2007 17:37:22
I registered with a recruitment agency recently and had to give my last employer as a reference. During my time with them, admittedly I did have several days off during the three months I was employed with them due to sickness on my behalf and my 12 year old son. I was to be put forward for a really good position and have just been informed that the recruitment agency can no longer represent me?! I rang my last employer to see if they had given me a bad reference and was told that she was not going to lie on my behalf and told them I never worked a full week, which was a total lie!! Is my ex-employer allowed to do this?
They are allowed to give an honest appraisal of your conduct, but not allowed to falsify it. It does seem to me that 'several' (your words) is more than just a 'few' and in just three months that seems quite a lot of time off which would soon mount up if it was 12 days or more (approximating to a 4 day week throughout your time on the job) - whatever the reason. This would not bode well for any prospective employer whether or not you actually did a whole week at one point or not. This is just semantics, and frankly I doubt you would have been represented anyway whether this statement was made or not.
13/03/2007 23:28:16
Hi to anyone that can help advice me.
I handed in my notice to my current employer due to the way my managerwas treating me . I had another job to go to until this morning when i recieved a letter from the company that i am suposed to be starting with. They wrote to me telling me that on the basis of feedback that they have recieved during the process of taking references, they are not prepared to proceed with my employment with them and herby rescind the offer of emplyment. They have also stated in the letter that they will NOT discuss any detail of references with potential employees or how they have come to their decision to withdraw their offer.
Now the NEW company i was suposed to be going to is good friends with my current HR employer.
Can the HR give the NEW employer a bad reference ?
I also feel that i am being discriminated as a girl at the NEW company contacted my present companys largest competitor and tried to generate new business as she knew of the company as she used to work for my current emplotyer, she told me on thursday that she got pulled into the office and she was asked by her boss if i had given her data which is not true as i dont have any and i also am unaware what company she contacted as i am in a differnt sector to what she is in.
The date of the letter conditional offfer to terminated my NEW contract was sent out on the 15th March , i take it after this girl had a discussion with her boss. What can i do ?
Please help as i no longer have a new job to go to and my contract ends with my current employer on the 30th March and i am a single parent and i am panicking llike mad ?
Thanks
Pink
17/03/2007 10:58:11
Last week i had this amazing interview and was given the job on the spot pending references. Unfortunatly my last employment was ended illigally and i went to employment tribunal and my claim was settled out the tribunal by my last employer. Now I find that the reference back from my last employer is daming, critical and one sided that its not true. I was honest at my interview with this new company and they know that my employment ended with difficulty at my last employer but because of this bad reference, it could be curtains on my new job offer.
I am very angry and I dont know if an ex employer can give a bad reference so can anyone advise on what I can do?
Cheers
02/09/2005 15:40:07
Reply to this message