bad job reference given

jessie175

*Snip*

Sigh...

Hobart

This is just my non-legal advice:

As far as I know your supervisor is obliged to give you a reference. I do not know precisely the legal stance on references, but I understand that nobody can give you a negative reference. I'm sure somebody else here can clarify that.

Secondly, nobody can "publish" untruths about you which may lower you in the eye's of right thinking members of society.

Irrespective of the size of the industry, if I was in your situation I would want to tackle this head-on now. While you may ruiffle some feathers in doing so, leaving a false record regarding your performance in any job, could have as much of a negative impact on your career as would the prospect of you being known as a trouble maker.

I would firstly approach your current HR manager/person and inform them that you intend to respond to, what you regard as, an unfair and untrue reference. Request a copy from HR. Secondly, write a letter to your previous employeer, attaching a copy of the reference, and highlight the areas that you feel are unfair and untrue. Send a copy to you preious employeer's managing director and HR dept.

I would then ring the manager responsible for this reference, and inform him/her of your actions. Request a reply from each party.

If the reply you receive does not address your concerns, talk to a solicitor.

jhegarty

You better state your not looking for legal advise before a mod see thats...

Wishbone Ash

Hobart wrote:

As far as I know your supervisor is obliged to give you a reference. I do not know precisely the legal stance on references, but I understand that nobody can give you a negative reference.

Yes I've never heard of someone getting a 'bad' reference. It's usually good or not given at all.

Kimbot

A reference AFAIK can not bring your personal life into question!!

i71jskz5xu42pb

Hobart wrote:

This is just my non-legal advice:

As far as I know your supervisor is obliged to give you a reference.

Nope
http://oasis.gov.ie/employment/changing_jobs/giving_notice.html

Hobart wrote:

I do not know precisely the legal stance on references, but I understand that nobody can give you a negative reference.

Again nope. If the reference is accurate then the employer would not be breaking any laws that I'm aware of. Most companies have a policy of not giving negative references but this their choice not a legal obligation.

I'm assuming here that from a Data Protection perspective you gave (implicit) permission for your former company to give a reference.

jessie175

*Snip*

dermot_sheehan

On the face of it, someone writing something bad about you to another person is considered defamation, and you can sue for damages.

There are two important defences that would cover this area. The first is truth which is always a complete defence to civil defamation proceedings (incidently not criminal defamation where a public interest I believe has to be shown).

For the statements that are untrue however there is another defence. It's the defence of qualified privilege. Qualified privilege covers situations where someone has a duty to communicate to someone and that person had an interest in receiving it. This duty could be legal or moral. My lecturer in college gave an example that (hypothetically) if someone wanted to work in the central bank, and asked him for a reference, and he knew that person was a compulsive thief, he would be under a duty to disclose that information in the letter to them. This communication would be protected, and even if the information turned out to be erroneous, it would be protected from a defamation action.

There's lot's of caselaw on what is and is not qualified privileged communication, and case law Jackson v. Hopperton and Hopkins v. Sadler has held it applies to an employer writing a reference to a new employer about an employee.

Another important thing is that malice destroys qualified privilege, if the author uses the occasion of privileged communication for an improper or wrong motive, then the privilege would be destroyed.

Our man in Havana

OP, have you seen a copy of this reference?

As a matter of interest, would one be entitled to a copy from HR?

jessie175

*Snip*

besty

Thread locked. This is a blatant breach of the forum charter and is becoming tiresome.

PM sent to the OP.